Caring for the People of the Clouds: Aging and Dementia in Oaxaca

by Jonathan Yahalom, Xavier E. Cagigas (Foreword)

In rural Mexico, people often say that Alzheimer’s does not exist. “People do not have Alzheimer’s because they don’t need to worry,” said one Oaxacan, explaining that locals lack the stresses that people face “over there”—that is, in the modern world. Alzheimer’s and related dementias carry a stigma. In contrast to the way elders are revered for remembering local traditions, dementia symbolizes how modern families have forgotten the communal values that bring them together.

In Caring for the People of the Clouds , psychologist Jonathan Yahalom provides an emotionally evocative, story-rich analysis of family caregiving for Oaxacan elders living with dementia. Based on his extensive research in a Zapotec community, Yahalom presents the conflicted experience of providing care in a setting where illness is steeped in stigma and locals are concerned about social cohesion. Traditionally, the Zapotec, or “people of the clouds,” respected their elders and venerated their ancestors. Dementia reveals the difficulty of upholding those ideals today. Yahalom looks at how dementia is understood in a medically pluralist landscape, how it is treated in a setting marked by social tension, and how caregivers endure challenges among their families and the broader community.

Yahalom argues that caregiving involves more than just a response to human dependency; it is central to regenerating local values and family relationships threatened by broader social change. In so doing, the author bridges concepts in mental health with theory from medical anthropology. Unique in its interdisciplinary approach, this book advances theory pertaining to cross-cultural psychology and develops anthropological insights about how aging, dementia, and caregiving disclose the intimacies of family life in Oaxaca.
 

256 pages, Hardcover

Published April 4, 2019

Reviews

[Amaris · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having studied anthropology, I know the care and attention it takes to write ethnography, and I think this one was cursory. I didn’t hear from the individual informants enough to trust that their experiences were truly being captured by this text. The analysis was based mostly on social constructivism, which felt rudimentary. I’m not sure this helped us push the envelope to further understand ourselves or other people. It did little more than demonstrate the ‘social fact’ that older generations don’t feel the western term Alzheimer’s is applicable. The author wasn’t trained in the discipline of anthropology. I was rooting for him, but ultimately it felt like someone’s foray into a discipline that takes many years of study to hone effectively.