Os artigos em questão são tapetes de palma entrançada (empreita). Na linguagem popular chamam-se capachinhos (como é normal este termo tem variações etnográficas alternando entre Capachinho/a, Capacho/a e por vezes esteira ou tapete). O capachinho faz parte da memória popular sendo evocado na frase “podemos não ter nada mas há sempre o capachinho e a boa vontade”. A frase refere-se ao costume de improvisar uma cama para acomodar visitantes colocando um capachinho no chão coberto por um colchão ou várias mantas na ausência de camas para hóspedes. Os capachinhos também eram utilizados como tapetes ou para se sentar em cima nas casas mais carenciadas (Marreiros, 1995).
A confecção destes artigos envolve uma técnica em que as fibras vegetais são entrançadas ou entrelaçadas para formar a baracinha, uma espécie de trança espalmada a partir da qual é feito o objecto intencionado (Comunicação pessoal – informante).
A planta de que são retirados os folíolos para fabricar o referido objecto chama-se Chamerops humilis ou palmeira anã e cresce espontaneamente no Algarve geralmente no litoral. Chamerops humilis foi a única palmeira que resistiu aos cataclismos telúricos do período pós-cenozóico (Adragão, 1985). (cenozóico comporta uma era que vai dos 65 milhões até 0 milhões de anos atrás).
Mais a Oeste do Algarve a palma chegava da Espanha, Marrocos e Gibraltar nos barcos que depois levavam o sal (Marreiros, 1995).
Processo de tratamento da palma para a empreita
A palma é primeiramente colhida. As folhas são seleccionadas do centro da planta sendo estas as mais jovens e portanto menos degradadas. As folhas colhidas são postas a secar. Depois de secas, as folhas são colocadas numa solução de enxofre para as clarear. Por vezes a palma é tingida a quente passando em seguida por uma solução de água e sal para fixar a cor. Finalmente a palma é ripada para obter a grossura desejada. As folhas mais grossas são utilizadas para fabricar vassouras (Bonnet, 1990).
A empreita é sub-dividida em duas categorias, a empreita fina e a empreita grossa. A empreita fina designa peças de acabamento mais pormenorizado e delicado, são peças mais trabalhadas como por exemplo chapéus. A empreita grossa designa artigos de trabalho mais simples e rudimentar como por exemplo cestos e vassouras. A própria palma utilizada na empreita fina tem uma largura menor do que aquele que é usada em artigos de empreita grossa (Comunicação pessoal –informante; Bonnet, 1990)
A actividade de entrançar fibras vegetais para fazer artigos de uso domestico tem origem em tempos quase intraçaveis. Um zote (semelhante ao cesto das línguas português) encontra-se gravado num baixo-relevo do museu do Cairo encontrado nos túmulos de Nakht e Ipouy. Uma armadilha para apanhar moreias praticamente igual á nassa portuguesa foi detectada gravada numa moeda Bizantina do século III. (Livro As Idades do Mar, 1999).
O trabalho de empreita de palma e mesmo o de entrançar outras fibras vegetais (esparto, vime e cana) é um conhecimento que existe no Algarve desde de tempos remotos sendo de introdução árabe (Marreiros,2002). As primeiras referências em Portugal á empreita encontram-se em documentos do século XIII. Naquela altura os objectos de empreita marcavam uma presença significativa nas feiras regionais como a de Lagos (Martins, 1987). Durante a referida época a empreita confeccionada em Lagos e arredores era exportada para fora da região e do país sendo vendida por exemplo em Gibraltar e Cadiz. (Martins, 1987).
Os artigos de palma eram geralmente feitos por necessidade, serviam uma função utilitária e complementavam em certos casos o rendimento familiar, sendo vendidos ou trocados por outros produtos. A actividade da empreita, em que eram manufacturados artigos como cestos, vassouras, tapetes etc., era geralmente exercida por mulheres á noite durante os tempos livres ou quando o trabalho agrícola encontrava-se sazonalmente reduzido (Adragão, 1985, Raposo, 1990)
No passado (cerca de 60 anos atrás) era frequente ver indivíduos fazendo empreita e outros trabalhos manuais á soleira da porta de casa. Por vezes juntavam-se pequenos grupos de pessoas executando trabalhos manuais, conversando, cantando ou discutindo (Vilas e Aldeias: Algarve Rural, 2003, Raposo, 1995). Durante estas ocasiões as jovens aprendiam a técnica de fazer empreita ( Comunicação pessoal- informante).
Devido á necessidade de auto-confeccionar artigos de uso quotidiano a técnica de manufactura era transmitida ás gerações seguintes. Se algum artigo faltasse numa casa havia geralmente alguém na vizinhança (ou na próxima) que sabia faze-lo, ás vezes era esse saber fazer tornado em ofício que depois baptizava o indivíduo e os seus descendentes passando de alcunha para nome de família. Existia inclusivamente os artesãos ambulantes que circulavam o país vendendo os seus produtos (Bastos,1991, Paula, 2001)
Artigos de uso doméstico; facas, cestos, alguidares etc., eram escassos no mercado ainda rudimentar e o dinheiro era pouco usado (Comunicação pessoal - informante). Esta situação começa a transformar-se em meados do século passado com o espalhar do consumismo e comercialismo (Marreiros, 1999). O hábito de comprar os artigos necessários em lojas e supermercados aumentou, enquanto o saber do fabrico caseiro diminuiu.
A empreita é uma actividade importante do artesanato Algarvio e embora encontra-se actualmente reduzida quando comparada com épocas anteriores a 1960, ainda há quem se dedica a esta actividade chegando mesmo a profissionalizar-se mas de forma que os lucros apenas complementam os principais rendimentos (Adragão, 1985, Marreiros 1999). Os indivíduos que se envolvem na empreita são geralmente de uma faixa etária que ultrapassa os cinquenta anos, existindo raras excepções. (Martins, 1989)
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Na cidade de Lagos e pequenas povoações do seu concelho ainda se encontram artesãos que fazem empreita de palma vendendo os seus produtos nos mercados semanais (Bago D’Uva, 2004, Martins, 1987. 1988, 1989). Tem havido iniciativas por parte de algumas entidades, apoiadas pelas câmaras municipais, de assegurar a continuação de tais artesianas por meio do aprovisionamento de cursos em que são ensinadas (Marreiros, 1999).
A palavra empreita tem a sua origem no termo implicta do Latim que significa "entrançado"( Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, 1990). Implicare é o verbo “entrancar“ (www.dictionary.reference.com/browse/implicate). Empreitada significa obra que é paga após a sua realização e entrega (idem,1990) tal como os objectos de empreita o são. O termo empreitada que se utiliza todos os dias especialmente na construção e que se tornou um termo técnico e legal deriva da actividade de entrançar fibras vegetais.
segunda-feira, 5 de julho de 2010
quinta-feira, 24 de junho de 2010
Notas sobre azeite e lagares, Lagos, Algarve
Segundo Plínio e outros historiadores de antiguidade que mencionaram Lagos nos seus manuscritos; durante a presença dos Fenícios em Lagos, por volta de 600 antes de Cristo, o azeite era exportado em grandes quantidades (Rocha, 1991).
Durante o século XV até aos finais do século XVIII o azeite era uma produção importante para Lagos, incluído na lista de mercadorias exportadas para fora da região e do país (Martins, 1987, Paula, 2001). Subsequentemente verifica-se um incremento de actividade na indústria conserveira e um gradual abandono de actividades rurais (Martins, 1987).
Segundo Mário Cardo (2000) o azeite produzido no Algarve é de fraca qualidade devido ás técnicas utilizadas para a sua extracção. O autor critica a conservação das azeitonas, em tulhas durante vários dias após a sua colheita sugerindo que a extracção imediata do azeite é importante. O autor condena inclusivamente a técnica do varejo o uso de uma vara para sacudir os ramos inalcançáveis provocando a queda dos frutos. (Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa,1990). O autor defende que a técnica do varejo apesar de permitir uma recolha mais rápida e fácil, prejudica a qualidade da azeitona e danifica a oliveira. O autor expõe as vantagens de efectuar podas regulares para limitar a altura da copa da oliveira permitindo a recolha manual do fruto. Cardo propõe que as azeitonas sejam apanhadas inteiras, perfeitamente maduras e sem mácula para assegurar a qualidade do azeite (Cardo, 2000).
Actualmente são utilizadas prensas hidráulicas para extrair o azeite da azeitona (Cardo, 2000).
As árvores que existem em maior numero no Algarve e eventualmente classificadas como sendo típicas são primeiramente as figueiras, em segundo as amendoeiras seguidas pelas alfarrobeiras com as oliveiras em quarto lugar (Cardo, 2000).
Durante o século XV até aos finais do século XVIII o azeite era uma produção importante para Lagos, incluído na lista de mercadorias exportadas para fora da região e do país (Martins, 1987, Paula, 2001). Subsequentemente verifica-se um incremento de actividade na indústria conserveira e um gradual abandono de actividades rurais (Martins, 1987).
Segundo Mário Cardo (2000) o azeite produzido no Algarve é de fraca qualidade devido ás técnicas utilizadas para a sua extracção. O autor critica a conservação das azeitonas, em tulhas durante vários dias após a sua colheita sugerindo que a extracção imediata do azeite é importante. O autor condena inclusivamente a técnica do varejo o uso de uma vara para sacudir os ramos inalcançáveis provocando a queda dos frutos. (Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa,1990). O autor defende que a técnica do varejo apesar de permitir uma recolha mais rápida e fácil, prejudica a qualidade da azeitona e danifica a oliveira. O autor expõe as vantagens de efectuar podas regulares para limitar a altura da copa da oliveira permitindo a recolha manual do fruto. Cardo propõe que as azeitonas sejam apanhadas inteiras, perfeitamente maduras e sem mácula para assegurar a qualidade do azeite (Cardo, 2000).
Actualmente são utilizadas prensas hidráulicas para extrair o azeite da azeitona (Cardo, 2000).
As árvores que existem em maior numero no Algarve e eventualmente classificadas como sendo típicas são primeiramente as figueiras, em segundo as amendoeiras seguidas pelas alfarrobeiras com as oliveiras em quarto lugar (Cardo, 2000).
quinta-feira, 10 de junho de 2010
PMS and the Human Revolution
Viky Mayer
This piece of writing is an anthropological contemplation of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. During this contemplation, dominant social and medicalised definitions of PMS are deconstructed.
This exploration looks at the alterations that occur to woman´s mood and sensitivity during the menstrual phase and how such alterations might have been important during the origins of human culture. I would like to open the way towards a more integral and honest understanding of temperament fluctuations attributed to PMS, challenging widely assumed ideas of PMS as unexplained moodiness or an excuse for bad temperedness, recognising its role in human evolution. Other concepts scrutinised here are those coming from the western occidental medical tradition defining PMS as resulting from and curable by hormones.
I suggest that pre-menstrual-syndrome is an evolutionary remnant of an adaptive female mating strategy, which emerged during the inaugural stages of human culture. This suggestion is, I posit, complementary to Chris Knight, Camilla Power and Ian Watts´(1995) account of the birth of proto-human cooperativeness, called The gender solidarity model (formerly known as sex-strike theory) which, the authors defend, would have catalysed the formation and development of human symbolic culture including language.
This article is not a fully matured hypothesis but hopefully a starting point, a thinking aloud, a suspicion mixed with some tenuously remembered socio-biological and anthropological theories and informed by psychological and medical research. What I intend to do here is sound out this “half-baked” hypothesis.
Method, Data Collection and Sources
The research carried out for this paper is based on self-study, as a woman who is markedly influenced by pre-menstrual syndrome. Self-study has become increasingly recognised as a valid investigative method within anthropology. Not wanting ,however, to collapse in to egotistical personality contemplation, as I believe that anthropology should and can offer more to humanity, I conducted interviews with several friends and acquaintances, including boyfriends, theirs and mine.
Starting point
The seed of this idea that there may be more to the monthly phase when women are in a “bad mood” was planted when I heard something that lodged itself as a loose phrase in my memory for years. A friend I have long lost contact with remarked in a conversation that during the pre-menstrual syndrome phase, we are not just in a “bad mood” but are less “tolerant”. At the time I didn´t really engage with the full meaning of what my friend was saying and the conversation naturally led on to other topics.
Around that same time I lived under the fallacy that only I experienced severe temperament changes before and during the beginning of menstruation. This personal myth was then rattled by another acquaintance who, whilst talking about natural remedies described herself as having been a “monster” during the PMS phase before she started taking evening primrose and starflower oil.
My Personal Account
In recent years, thoughts and observations germinated into ideas, opening the way towards thinking about PMS differently. Challenged by the idea that there might be more to PMS than random irritability, I started to observe my own feelings and attitudes during this phase. I noticed that patterns of attitudes and feelings occurred at certain stages during my cycle:
One week before my menstruation starts I feel irritated with other peoples´ behaviours which seem (to me) to be unacceptable and disrespectful, not only towards me but society in general. The behaviour that I will take issue with during this phase does not go unnoticed during the rest of the month but is certainly not given such a level of importance. I become angered and the need heightens to express my discontentment with certain behaviours and attitudes. I tend to express myself impulsively, emotionally and even aggressively, determined not to be ignored or intimidated. This attempt at communication ends up being blurred by anger. I have noticed that behaviours which trigger such amplified reactions are mostly those which I perceive as indicating attitudes of negligence, selfishness and abuse of trust. During PMS I feel a desperate need to expose and correct injustices, which are felt as real not figments just of my imagination and not exaggerations. The perceived “injustices” seem to gain gravity during this phase.
I will mostly tend to get irritated with my boyfriend if he; does not carry out household chores, appears to take me for granted, attempts to dominate decision-making. I am quicker to use a sharp tone with my daughter if she; is careless of responsibilities like tidying and accomplishing homework or if she attempts to have her way. I become more inflexible with those around me. The “unacceptable” behaviour of others will be perceived by me as uncooperative and detrimental.
This tension mounts and two or three days before menstruation starts I become depressed, unmotivated and extremely fatigued. I desire seclusion, to do as little as possible, to sleep, and eat as much as possible.
Once the blood flow starts in earnest (apologies to the more squeamish), I feel liberated from irritability and sadness. Energy returns multiplied sometimes to ridiculous extents by which I try to achieve an outrageous amount of tasks within a totally inadequate space of time. The feeling that “anything is possible” emerges and usually articulates itself in a cleaning binge during which the house is turned upside down before startled gazes. Optimism and assertiveness replace the previous depression and inertia. The need to communicate reaches new strengths and I feel an urgent but positive necessity to resolve interpersonal problems previously avoided. Insecurity, shyness and reluctance don’t just take a back seat but get out of the car and walk. I no longer feel stumped by negative feelings. In contrast to just before the first day of my period when I try to avoid possible confrontations with people of some relational distance, during this next phase I step up and fearlessly attempt to deal with potentially difficult situations. I feel communicative, confident and determined but not aggressive or irritated.
Other women.
Although I never expected to find identical female experiences of PMS (and did not) commonalities did reappear. I found complicity and could identify with accounts where anger was caused by behaviour and attitudes perceived as uncaring, egotistical or abusive. Phrases that resonated with my own experience were:
I am more sensitive, I have humour variations (…) I get more irritated, outwards, things that usually on other days go over my head (during PMS) I look them head-on, they become the focus,
We are weaker than the rest of the month; we are too weak to put up with stuff. So we blow up because the rest of the month we are stronger, we put up with everything but at that time we are just too weak.
And I also generally feel more dissatisfied, unhappy I get upset with little things and am ultra sensitive and maybe less able to see other´s point of view ,possibly this is a contradiction. (…)It´s fundamentally an internal turmoil that exteriorises when things don’t go as I expected. Normally it affects people that are closer to me, the ones I have more confidence with or just happen to be around with constancy.
I definitely get more sensitive.
I found that similar to my own tendencies, PMS irritability was often directed towards people in ones closest circle targeting behaviour seen as egotistical, abusive or neglectful. One female collaborator explained that; when for example, her partner entered the house after work without greeting her this would be construed as uncaring and likely to cause irritability and tension during PMS.
Discussion
Although collaborators were willing to talk about their experiences of PMS there were difficulties in encouraging specific descriptions about feelings and sentiments or exactly what was the object or source of complaints. This quite often resulted in temperament nuances being buried under blanket definitions such as “bad mood” or “more sensitive”. Personal narratives tended towards self- condemnation with mood alterations referred to as if they were individual personality faults. Several participants suggested during the informal parts of the interviews (when the recording material was turned off), that PMS is used as an excuse for women to simply be bad tempered.
Given the discourse used by participants when talking about PMS, it is not enough to restrict our attention to negative mood fluctuations, how they manifest themselves and exactly what they are directed towards. The importance of discourse analysis becomes evident. The way in which women talk about their own mood alteration during PMS often evidences self-blame, guilt and condemnation of these phenomena. This self-recriminating attitude is evident in expressions and statements such as: We are weaker, I get upset with little things,(I) am ultra sensitive, less able to see other´s point of view and monster.
Listening to different women, it became clear that as PMS has been so successfully categorised as a mere negative “symptom” of the menstrual cycle this has closed the way towards entertaining the possibility that the issues (attitudes, life style, social circumstances) targeted by such a “symptom” may actually be the causes (Ussher, 2003). When talking about what caused discontentment during PMS interviewees seldom went beyond explanations by hormones, weakness due to blood loss et.c.
Sensitivity
The word sensitive was used several times in most interviews.
Because of the frequent mention of sensitivity I felt the need to take a closer look at the concept. Physical sensitivity usually implies a heightened ability to perceive external stimulus, reacting towards it as necessary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulus_(physiology )).
Within a mental or psychological reality, sensitivity is that which allows a more intense perception of surrounding phenomena (environmental and social) as well as the ability to become psychologically affected by such phenomena reacting to them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_(human )).
Anger and Discipline in Capitalist Societies.
The idea that irritability, depression, and emotional hypersensitivity are more than consequences of hormonal fluctuations and/or women´s inability to control these states is the central argument of Emily Martin´s Premenstrual Syndrome: Discipline, Work and Anger in Late Industrial Societies (1999). In her discussion, Martin analyses the way in which PMS is conceptualized as a pathology in modern western society. This negative conceptualization of PMS defines as undesirable, mental states such as absent-mindedness, difficulty in concentrating and forgetfulness, as they are seen to reduce efficiency. On the other hand, Martin has also found, in her research, testimonies of increased sensitivity, creativity and artistic ability during the paramenstrual phase. These capabilities however are often overlooked. Martin explains the negative conceptualization of PMS resulting from modern socio-economic values, expectations and demands and reminds us that the capitalist and industrial society we live in values a type of productivity attained through strict disciplining of the mind and body. Creativity and sensitivity are given merit only within the fortunate context of having an artistic occupation. Martin goes on to explore how these societal demands are reproduced in the home a space where efficiency and discipline are expected from the woman to maintain it to perfectionist standards. Included in these demands are the marital and parental expectations imposed on the woman by society and its tools of social conditioning (media).
The necessity of discipline in this scenario is explained when we look not only at the nature of the work and activities but also their repetitiveness, renewal and endlessness perfectly expressed in the popular saying “A woman´s work is never done”. Emily Martin successfully compares this to the Torture of Sisyphus following the example of Simone de Beauvoir before her.
Martin asserts that it is not surprising when these monotonous repetitive and continuous daily activities are accompanied by periodic feelings of absent-mindedness, forgetfulness and resentment. This is voiced quite successfully in one woman´s description of PMS: “Then quite suddenly you feel as if you can’t cope anymore- everything seems too much trouble, the endless household chores, the everlasting planning of meals. For no apparent reason you rebel: “Why should I do everything?” you ask yourself defiantly. I didn’t have to do this before I was married. Why should I do it now?(...)” Unfortunately Katharina Dalton (1979.cited by Martin, 1988 ) who collected this narrative failed to take this woman´s complaints seriously, suggesting in the end that medical advice and treatment be procured.
Martin´s main argument is that PMS is not a case for the doctors. What misleads is that the objects of complaints are nearly always overlooked. The woman´s emotional state and how capabilities have been affected are all too frequently focused on as the problem, a “condition” to be dealt with by the medical profession. PMS is treated as abnormal, causing abnormal and unwarranted reactions despite the increasing burdens placed on women. The woman´s personal situation is nearly always overlooked. Attention is diverted from the target of the negative responses and placed on the woman as the locus of concern and correction. It is rarely contemplated that the object of anger might actually be the cause. Martin suggests that complaints like these should be taken not as warnings of biological flaws inside women that need to be fixed but insights into flaws in society that need to be addressed (Martin, 1988).
On other occasions, the anger and the contents of the complaints might merely be dismissed as an undesirable “symptom” of the Pre-Menstrual phase, not taken seriously and which the woman should be able to control. In the range of attitudes towards PMS we have those that; define it as a medical condition in need of treatment, dismiss it as an unfortunate “symptom”, see it as a pretext for women to be bad tempered or a failure of women to control bodily processes. In fairness, the posture that PMS is not blameable on the woman and should be ignored is possibly well intentioned, but also a frequent aggravation of the angry sentiments as women’s complaints are unheard:
Anger experienced in this way as a result of woman´s intrinsic badness- cannot help but lead to guilt . I would like to suggest the possibility-though at this stage it cannot be proved-that the sources of this diffuse anger could well come from women´s perception, however inarticulate, of their oppression in society: of their lowered wage scales, lesser opportunities for advancement into higher ranks, tacit omission from the language, coercion into roles inside the family and out that demand constant nurturance and self-denial-to only to begin the list. (Martin, E, 1988 p177).
The perception that Martin suggests here is very possibly a sub conscious consequently translating itself into the pre-menstrual “inarticulate” expression of anger and rebellion against injustices that during the rest of the month are tolerated but not resolved. In the words of Shuttle and Redgrove the PMS phase is possibly, “ a moment of truth which will not sustain lies (…) maybe at the paramenstruum, the truth, flares into her consciousness(…) (Shuttle and Redgrove , 1978:58 as quoted by Martin, E, 1988:178)
The “truth” that appears during this time of the month may be suppressed in the rest of the month to the point where the women in question will feel satisfied and contented in their life, hence the surprise when mood lowering occurs and negative sentiments are felt. The woman might feel surprised or shocked and even that a different person has “emerged”. In Martin´s research, one woman even describes herself as “possessed”. In addition to this, there are other descriptions of women feeling that they are not being themselves. The idea that women are “not themselves” or take on another character with whom they do not identify is quite common in the personal narratives. Auto-definitions of women becoming “monsters” or “possessed” are, explains Martin, a result of an internalised oppression of women where they are not allowed to recognise the anger and revolt as belonging to them due to, the expectations had of women, their position in society and how these values have been so successfully “drilled” into us.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and the Subjugation of Women
More recent and extensive research has been carried out by Jane Ussher (2003) who analyses Premenstrual Stress (or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder as it has recently been rename) as a concept by which women who report the “symptoms” are pathologised and subjugated.
Ussher criticises the labelling of PMS as a condition referred to the medical experts for treatment. Supported by the psychoanalyst Karen Horney´s work where the idea is refuted that PMS is a disorder as it occurs in “otherwise healthy women” (Horney, E, 1931: 2), Ussher challenges broadly accepted hegemonic ideas about PMS, disassembling:
“PMDD as a discursive construct, a nosological category that allows particular aspects of women´s experience to be deemed “symptoms”, (…) a necessary part of any attempt to understand the way in which women´s reproductive bodies are positioned as dysfunctional. The dethroning of experts who pathologies women´s psychological or body experiences, or women´s responses to the circumstances in their lives, is also an essential part of any progressive form of explanation for distress or unhappiness. (Ussher, 2003: 133).
In challenging the ideology provided by experts and dominated still by positivist-realism, Ussher draws attention to how women, when asked to describe their PMS experience, illustrate the internalisation of the dominant medical language presenting a list of key symptoms found in medical descriptions. This does not mean however that the women have nothing more to say about their PMS experience:
“for when given an opportunity to present their own interpretations of their premenstrual experiences in the open ended narrative interview the same women presented a much richer and contextualised picture of their symptomalogy. They talked spontaneously of issues such as relationships, problems at work, needing time to themselves, feelings of overwhelming responsibility, and failing to cope and be in control at all times as PMS (Ussher, 2003:133)”
As a result of the pathologisation of PMS a need to eliminate it as a “condition” is fabricated. Fluctuations, transitions and changes within a woman’s body and mind are designated as undesirable and failings in need of correction. This happens because women are judged under constructions of idealised femininity set within broader idealisations of self-hood, resulting in the alienating diagnosis under discussion. Idealisations of femininity perpetuate constructions of an imaginary woman who is never angry, irritable, unmotivated, lethargic, needy of anything, irrational or self-centred (Ussher, 2003). This construction exists within the broader representation of self-hood based on notions of consistency, sameness and stability. PMS is defined as that which is deviant of these criterion and women experiencing PMS are seen as “other” to what is acceptable, positive and functional. These women are thus alienated from society as being dysfunctional and from themselves in being deprived ownership of their anger.
Ussher explains that women who define themselves as PMS sufferers will often tend to enumerate (and undermine) experiences, behaviours and sensations by using a pseudo-scientific language accepted as legitimate within our society. Within this discourse such manifestations (physical and psychological changes) are defined as being part of a condition, an illness, a pathology caused and resolved by the same factor; physical and chemical reactions, fundamentally biological and physical realities (Ussher, 2003). The tendency within the contemporary medical approach is to value physical manifestations as real, objective and measurable thus easier to treat. Socio-psychological processes are given less consideration with the corresponding interventions awarded second-class status if any (Ussher, 2003). Within this dominant medical framework PMS is seldom regarded as a social or psychological issue but rather a physical and chemical one, treatable by pharmaceuticals alone (Ussher, 2003).
By conceptualising PMS in these essentialisms, attention is kept away, therefore from the object of complaint. Women self-regulate themselves explaining the mood lowering as occurring due to “that time of the month” or “hormones”. Ussher warns of the fallacy of regarding that which aniquilates symptoms as that which causes them in the first place, due to lack or absence. This is exemplified with aspirins that anesthetise headaches or Co2 which can resolve panic attacks, both chemicals can remove symptoms but the lack of them are not the causes of the complaints (Ussher,2003). Ussher applies the same observation to PMS in that hormone fluctuation in the blood is often considered the sole cause of PMS. Hormone therapy has reported some success in lessening “symptoms” of PMS, however a more holistic approach is necessary if we are to find any integral solution. Considerable amounts of women who menstruate and do not use hormonal contraceptives do not report severe PMS. Some women do not report PMS at all. The level of PMS is also known to vary during the life cycle of a woman (Martin, 1988).
When considered in this light, chemical and physical manifestations alone, fail to satisfactorily explain the occurrence of PMS in women.
Socio-biology
Biologically speaking, irritability during PMS has been, and could be, partially explained by hormonal processes that occur during the reproductive cycle. In the event of the ovum not being fertilized and so that the lining of the womb may detach itself from the womb and excreted from the body production of oestrogen and progesterone slow down and eventually stop. The absence of these sex hormones (oestrogens, prostagens and androgens) in our blood can contribute towards influencing psychological disposition lowering mood (Collins et al, 1985,). Although correlations have been found, it is not however such a simple cause and effect process. It has been noted that some women do not suffer from PMS while others experience only mild mood alterations (Serrano and Warnock, 2007, Debrovner, 1982, Lever, 1981, Ramcharan et al,, 1992). Furthermore, PMS and the intensity of it can fluctuate during the life of a woman: The onset of PMDD typically occurs in the late 20s to early 30s, and symptoms become more severe over time. Women do not usually seek treatment until years after the onset of their symptoms, often in their 30s or 40s (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). The incidence of PMS in relation to age parity, and the existence of a male living partner has been examined (and is generally found to go up with each (Martin, 1988 citing Debrovner, 1982)
Schimdt et al (1998, Cited by Warnock, 2007) suggest that women suffering from severe PMS present a different sensitivity to the monthly hormonal fluctuation:
Schmidt et al hypothesize that a different behavioural sensitivity to ovarian sex steroids exists in connection with these disorders. When the level of estrogens declines, depressive symptoms may be triggered in vulnerable women. (Serrano and Warnock, 2007 citing Schidmt et al, 1998)
What differs in women suffering from PMS are not the hormonal processes but the way in which these women respond to the monthly fluctuations: Women with PMDD exhibit normal gonadal steroid changes; however, these changes precipitate or augment an abnormal serotonergic response (Serrano and Warnock, 2007. citing Schimdt et al, 1998)
In the same article where Serrano and Warnock (2007) map the occurrence of depression during main female reproductive transitions the authors examine how PMS, or its more severe form PMDD (Para Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder), and other phases of mood lowering are the result of an amalgamation of factors. The depressive state is usually the result (although frequently subconscious) of an interplay of biological, psychological and socio-cultural factors.
Besides the already mentioned biological and chemical processes that occur in the female body during main reproductive stages, and more specifically to this study, during menstruation; previous scientific research has suggested that women who have been subjected to stressful life conditions during childhood, i.e. physical, emotional and mental negative experiences, are more likely to report aggravated manifestations of PMS (Serrano and Warnock,2007. citing Brand, 2003).
Trauma during childhood alters brain circuits and predetermines emotional responses in adult years due to the alteration of the hypothalamic-pituary and adrenal functioning (Serrano and Warnock, 2007. citing Heim, Meinlschmidt and Nemeroff, 2003).
In addition to this Serrano and Warnock elaborate on how present socio-cultural environment and personal life situations influence the above emotional process, namely the increasing burden placed on women by the paradox between expectations and what is humanely possible. Women increasingly juggle several responsibilities that grow in difficulty such as motherhood, professional life and self-fulfilment (which is often sacrificed). Many women have the extra responsibility of a partner to consider within the daily routine. In a society with escalating financial demands and preoccupations leading women into the work place, quite often without easy access to adequate childcare or education facilities, they are faced with rising pressures to resolve ever-occurring dilemmas. This is further aggravated by being contextualised within a current social scenario where isolation from family support becomes widespread. Such stressful experiences place women at a heightened risk of depressive symptoms, these are possibly the “vulnerable women” referred to in the above quote. “Vulnerable” here must not be understood in the sense of week or fragile but as “susceptible”. Negative life experiences have rendered PMS sufferers subject to a different internal response to hormonal fluctuations. Such women have been “sensitivised”.
Instead of separating the chemical and the physical from the psychological and social factors there is instead an urgent need to determine how the various realities are intertwined, interdependent and more importantly how they influence each other.
The main idea being advanced here is that consistent negative experiences can condition chemical reactions to hormonal fluctuations which in turn influence mood and disposition in women. This affects women particularly when they are traversing reproductive events to which hormonal fluctuations are inherent (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). A more productive approach to PMS will study it as resulting from an interaction of several different factors i. e social and personal factors in the past present and future, biological characteristics (hormones, chemicals) as well as family medical history.
The idea that corporal manifestations can be studied and understood separately from the social and psychological reality that surrounds them, and of which the body is part, has been the target of criticism and elaboration for several decades ( Foucalt, 1979; Henriques et al., 1999 Stainton-Rogers, 1991 as cited by Ussher, 2003 and Scheper-Hughes, 1994).The understanding that is gaining acceptance amongst health professionals realises that we do not experience symptoms in a sociocultural vacuum (Ussher,2003).
Considering the circumstances within which PMS tends to manifests itself one could question whether it is such a dysfunctional phenomenon after all. In fact some kind of utility might even be attributed to this mood alteration as an indicator of surrounding dysfunctionality. It is important to maintain openness to the possibility that PMS might be hinting towards the existence of prejudicial personal circumstances. The communication and expression that something is wrong allows for the possibility of a change to be made but not if the cries for help are constantly undermined by medicine or psychiatry.
PMS can be valued for its indicatorial ability as well as its capacity to motivate the sufferer to stop trying to cope with intolerable and stressful circumstances. At this point it is worth noting that what is being referred to here are circumstances which might be destructive not only for the PMS sufferer but for those within the person´s close social group. PMS is not a symptom of a dysfunctional woman´s body but rather a symptom of a dysfunctional society.
There are few generalised physiological manifestations that turn out to be mere coincidences or freak symptoms without cause or origin. What I wish to propose at this point is that somewhere along the history of human evolution PMS must have had a purpose and served a function, hence its survival into the present.
PMS may have played an essential role during a time of social evolution. The survival of our species as well as the emergence of human symbolic culture may have depended on such a social change.
Gender Solidarity and the Emergence of Human Culture
PMS as an adaptively advantageous trait gained consolidation during the early stages of human evolution and was quite possibly responsible for providing the impetus towards a development of a new female mating strategy necessary for survival. The need for the adoption of a new female reproductive strategy (as outlined by Knight, Power and Watts, 1995) came about due to an increase in subsistence stresses that female proto humans would have been experiencing during the stage of species brain growth (encephalisation). In addition to this and as a direct result increased offspring dependency during the earlier life stages further complicated subsistence problems. Encephalisation created a need not only for an increase in food consumption but also in nutritional variety. This signified growing burdens for females. According to the Knight, Power and Watts model (1995) a change in female strategy involved the gradual development of a ritual performance stipulating conditions of; mating unavailability until meat caught on hunting expeditions was brought to a fixed home base and shared ( see Knight, Power and Watts for a complete account of the gender solidarity/sex strike theory http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/old/pub_knight_power_watts_big.pdf).
I predict that PMS was an important contribution to female coalitions during the primordial ritual/performances carried out when proto-human females sought to mobilise male investment and collaboration.
Given the nature of social life before human cooperativeness young proto-females would have been exposed to turbulent times; affected by emotional and mental distress due to hunger, aggression and grief related to struggles for subsistence. This would have been set within a predicted scenario resembling violent primate social dynamics. These negative experiences could have been a trigger conditioning a specific internal response during monthly hormonal fluctuations which would reproduce itself during adulthood (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). The increased internal sensitivity to hormonal fluctuations or PMS would intensify feelings of anger and revolt. These feelings would have been adaptively useful within the “sex strike” strategy as well as justified since social change as significant as that being discussed would have taken generations to achieve.
If indeed there was a specific time during the lunar and reproductive cycle when the refusal of courtship and demand for collaboration occurred, and Knight, Powers and Watts (1994) situate this “manifestation” around menstruation, PMS by altering temperaments would have facilitated this refusal in opposition to the oestrus phase when intercourse is difficult to refuse. Not only would PMS provide a mental disposition for refusal but it would also allow for a different kind of female to emerge, one who is determined to communicate demands and conditions, who feels the urgent need for a change in behaviour. The heightened creativity during the Menstrual phase, testified by so many narratives (Martin, 1988), would have been extremely helpful in finding new ways to communicate during a time when articulated language did not yet exist. According to the Gender Solidarity / Sex Strike theory (1994) the need to communicate conditions was based on an urgency to motivate male investment for the sake of survival, not only of the females themselves but of their offspring, given the change in circumstances. In addition to this, if we are referring to a phase during the month when females were already synchronising menstruation then there is a strong chance that several females might have been experiencing PMS simultaneously. No matter how different PMS can be from one woman to another, the general mood alteration would have been felt by those for which the ritual/performance/refusal was intended. This is perfectly in tune with narratives where women describe the sensation that they become something other than themselves, “possessed “or “monsters”. One can argue that the females may have directed their anger or aggressiveness towards each other but it is far more likely that in the presence of a common antagonist, (non-cooperative members of a group) this discontentment would have been focused outwards or toward other females endangering the coalition through betrayal. Matters of subsistence would have been far more pressing, monopolising the proto-females attention.
The new female reproductive strategy seeking to mobilise and secure male investment as described by Knight, Power and Watts (1994) has been proposed as the catalysis for the emergence of human symbolic culture being that the ritual/performance would have been the first group action to contain elements of collective deception. Elements of collective deception would have been articulated in the reversal of courtship signals: “wrong time, wrong sex and wrong species”. This characterisation would reiterate the unavailability of women to engage in sexual intercourse unless the conditions were met.
I recall when a male friend of mine confessed that he seemed often to feel attracted to menstruating women although unaware of this fact. One collaborator told me that her boyfriend seems to desire intercourse more when she was menstruating and that she would be reluctant to have sex unless he was caring and affectionate beforehand, this would seduce her. Although this is not the place to explore this extensive and interesting topic, the data collected in interviews seems to indicate a connection between sexual attraction and the menstrual phase. This supports Chris Knight’s idea that the ritual/performance would also have been based on mixed as well as inverted signals: “impending sexual receptivity but unavailability”, “moody but sexy”. Knight, Power and Watts predict that the rituals would feature the use of a red pigment (ochre to signify menstruation) to express impending fertility. Animal and opposite sex characterisation would also be used emphasising and adding drama to the message. This prediction is supported by cross-cultural ethnographic evidence (Knight, Powers and Watts, 1994).
PMS would have offered a strong mental and emotional presence in the dramatisation. Within the performance arts it is a well accepted idea that a felt performance is an altogether more convincing one (Stanislavsky, 1936, Grotowski, 1968 and Brook, 1968). Performers would not have to pretend they are angered, belligerent and determined because that is how they would have really felt.
PMS as well as allowing for the internal presence of anger, determination and revolt would also have facilitated creative ability and sensitivity.
A heightened sensitivity would have allowed for the generation of a corresponding emotional reaction towards sexual and social dynamics characteristic of primate behaviour. The driving force behind the change in female strategy proposed by the authors is more likely to have been emotion seeing as the new strategy would have relied on performance as a tool of expression and persuasion. An increase in sensitivity would have made the emotionality available.
Artists are often described as having an increased sensitivity, positioning some of them at the vanguard of human symbolic culture, changing, defying and even denying that which is established (Hastrup, 2001)
I suggest, at the risk of being criticised limb-to-limb, by some men and even women, that some levels of PMS may still reproduce and maintain cooperation within the household, or small social group. There is an exaggeration of the reactive attitude towards what is perceived as damaging behaviours and attitudes. An increased response can allow for the maintenance of mutual support and collaboration between the couple or within the close social group. Contention, which is concealed during the rest of the month finds a voice (albeit sometimes exaggerated and incoherent). Thousands of years of female oppression with the subversion of menstrual power however has redefined PMS as a phase of random and whimsical irritability, something counterproductive and unbalancing. When “scientific progress” entered the discussion on PMS, the female body became defined as dysfunctional, the focus of medical correction (Ussher, 2003).
It is therefore a difficult task to unpeel the layers of meanings that have been wrapped around PMS making it seem almost impossible to even begin contemplating the idea that PMS might have served a very important purpose at some point during human evolution.
In a modern day context, PMS or rather, some extreme PMS experiences, may not be so useful. This is especially true if the causality of PMS is obscured misleading us as to its true nature and resolution.
I can remember several instances where boyfriends broke up with me because of my bad temperedness; I know this because shortly before the split the same boyfriend surprised me with a gift of evening primrose and starflower oil capsules. Possibly readers are summoning personal memories of the monthly impossible girlfriend that they had to let go of or dramatically aggressive arguments about where a candle should be placed, dishes that are washed but not dried and put away, the toilet seat being left up et.c, wondering at the same time how can this be securing harmony, social collaboration and mutual respect? It is however common knowledge that dramatic arguments over seemingly insignificant situations seldom arise from those particular situations alone. The “insignificant situations” act as a trigger initiating the arguments. All too frequently the insignificant issues are the last drop before the conflict of interests overflow under the strain of trying to silently contain them.
The downfall of PMS is that it is a survival from an adaptive strategy which came about within a very different social scenario.
Women are more isolated in contemporary western society, we do not synchronise quite as much because the closeness has been somewhat reduced. We also wash more frequently and overall wear more clothes, which impedes the diffusion of the pheromones responsible for menstrual synchrony. A female friend may listen to my laments and wonder why I am making such a fuss about something which to her seems trivial as she is not going through PMS and is not experiencing the same problem. We are often isolated in our PMS and our complaints fail to resonate.
More importantly, the complaints do not concern an extreme philandering male behaviour. Most of our sexual partners are not running around copulating with 4 to 5 of our friends, getting us constantly pregnant with their children, leaving us to eat on their own while we starve only to then kill our children when any one of them becomes the dominant male so they can impregnate us again. PMS may no longer need to be tuned to that kind of behaviour but possibly, it still is. This is especially true when negative life experiences during the formative years have imprinted internal responses to hormonal fluctuations. The outward manifestations of PMS may be a disproportionate reaction, out of date and synchrony with most of present social situations. However, the fact that these internal responses have been triggered must not be ignored.
I wish to finish by suggesting that a possible way forward might be achieved through self- reflection and honest communication whereby complaints are accepted and respected as real issues to be resolved and worked through. There needs to be the awareness that stifling complaints can only result in a later (or even present) much more unproductive and damaging articulation of distress. Once communication can open itself up it will lose the need to be exaggerated and aggressive as both sides are intent on understanding each other, offering no resistance to the assimilation of the message´s content.
Bibliography
AIELLO, Leslie and POWER, Camilla, 1997, Female proto-symbolic strategies in Women in Human Evolution, edited by L Hager, London, Routledge.
BRAND. B, 2003, Trauma and Women in Psychiatr Clin North Am. 26: 759-779.
BROOK. Peter, 1968, The Empty Space,
DEBROVNER, C , 1982, Premenstrual Tension: A Multidisciplinary Approach, New York, Human Sciences Press.
COLLINS, Aila, ENEROTH, Peter & LANDGREN, Britt-Marie, 1985, Psychoneuroendocrine Stress Responses and Mood as Related to the Menstrual Cycle, Psychosomatic Medicine, 47,512-527
DA SILVA, Amparo Dias, GRAMAXO, Fernanda, SANTOS, Maria Ermelinda, MESQUITA, Almira Fernandes, BALDAIA, Ludovina & FÉLIX, José Mário, 2004 , Planeta Vivo: Viver Melhor na Terra; Ciências Físicas e Naturais, Ciências Naturais, 3º Ciclo, Porto, Porto Editora.
GROTOWSKI. Jerzy, 1968,Towards a Poor Theatre, Intro by Peter Brook
HASTRUP, Kirsten, 2001, Othello´s Dance : Cultural Creativity And Human Agency, in Locating Cultural Creativity, edited by J Liep, London, Pluto Press.
HEIM. C, MEINLSCHMINDT. MS and NEMEROFF. CB, 2003, Neurobiology of Early Life Stress in Pscychiatr Ann 33: 18:26
HORNEY. K, 1931, Die Pramenstruellen Verstimmungen. Zeitscher. F . psychoanalytische Padagogik, 5 , 1-7. Reprinted in Horney, K. [Reprinted in Horney, K (1967). Feminine psychology, 99-106, London: Norton.]
KNIGHT, Chris, 1991, Blood Relations: Menstruation and the Origins of Culture, New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
KNIGHT, Chris, 1998, Approaches to the Evolution of Language, edited by Michael Studdert-Kennedy and James Hurford, Cambridge (mass), Cambridge University Press.
KNIGHT, Chris. POWER, Camilla and WATTS, Ian. 1995, The Human Symbolic Revolution: A Darwinian Account, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 5 (1): 75-114.
LEVER J with BRUSH. M, 1981, Pre-menstrual Tension, New York, Bantam
MARTIN.E, 1988, Premenstrual Syndrome: Discipline, Work, and Anger in Late Industrial Societies in Blood Magic, The Anthropology of Menstruation, edited by Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb, London, University of California Press
RAMCHARAN. S, LOVE.E J, FICK.G.H, GOLDFIEN. A, 1992, The epidemiology of Premenstrual Symptoms in a Population-based Sample of 2650 Urban Women: Attributable Risk and Risk Factors. J Clin Epidemiol 45: 377-392
SERRANO. E, and WARNOCK. J.K, 2007, Depressive Disorders Related to Female Reproductive Transitions, Journal of Pharmacy Practice, Sage.
SCHEPER-HUGHES. Nancy, 1994,Embodied Knowledge: Thinking With the Body in Critical Medical Anthropology, in Assessing Cultural Anthropology, edited by Rob Borosfsky, New York, McGraw.
STANISLAVSKI. Constantin. 1936, An Actor Prepares, London: Methuen, 1988
USSHER. Jane. M, 2003, The Role of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder in the Subjectification of Women, Journal of Medical Humanities, , Vol 24, Nos. 1/2 Summer, Human Sciences press, Inc
http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/old/pub_knight_power_watts_big.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_(human )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulus_(physiology)
Interviews
Erica Martins,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Henrique Pereira,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Jorge Pereira,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Maria Bevilaqua, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, via email.
Maria Joao Alcobia, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Neusa Dias, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Viky Mayer
This piece of writing is an anthropological contemplation of Pre-Menstrual Syndrome. During this contemplation, dominant social and medicalised definitions of PMS are deconstructed.
This exploration looks at the alterations that occur to woman´s mood and sensitivity during the menstrual phase and how such alterations might have been important during the origins of human culture. I would like to open the way towards a more integral and honest understanding of temperament fluctuations attributed to PMS, challenging widely assumed ideas of PMS as unexplained moodiness or an excuse for bad temperedness, recognising its role in human evolution. Other concepts scrutinised here are those coming from the western occidental medical tradition defining PMS as resulting from and curable by hormones.
I suggest that pre-menstrual-syndrome is an evolutionary remnant of an adaptive female mating strategy, which emerged during the inaugural stages of human culture. This suggestion is, I posit, complementary to Chris Knight, Camilla Power and Ian Watts´(1995) account of the birth of proto-human cooperativeness, called The gender solidarity model (formerly known as sex-strike theory) which, the authors defend, would have catalysed the formation and development of human symbolic culture including language.
This article is not a fully matured hypothesis but hopefully a starting point, a thinking aloud, a suspicion mixed with some tenuously remembered socio-biological and anthropological theories and informed by psychological and medical research. What I intend to do here is sound out this “half-baked” hypothesis.
Method, Data Collection and Sources
The research carried out for this paper is based on self-study, as a woman who is markedly influenced by pre-menstrual syndrome. Self-study has become increasingly recognised as a valid investigative method within anthropology. Not wanting ,however, to collapse in to egotistical personality contemplation, as I believe that anthropology should and can offer more to humanity, I conducted interviews with several friends and acquaintances, including boyfriends, theirs and mine.
Starting point
The seed of this idea that there may be more to the monthly phase when women are in a “bad mood” was planted when I heard something that lodged itself as a loose phrase in my memory for years. A friend I have long lost contact with remarked in a conversation that during the pre-menstrual syndrome phase, we are not just in a “bad mood” but are less “tolerant”. At the time I didn´t really engage with the full meaning of what my friend was saying and the conversation naturally led on to other topics.
Around that same time I lived under the fallacy that only I experienced severe temperament changes before and during the beginning of menstruation. This personal myth was then rattled by another acquaintance who, whilst talking about natural remedies described herself as having been a “monster” during the PMS phase before she started taking evening primrose and starflower oil.
My Personal Account
In recent years, thoughts and observations germinated into ideas, opening the way towards thinking about PMS differently. Challenged by the idea that there might be more to PMS than random irritability, I started to observe my own feelings and attitudes during this phase. I noticed that patterns of attitudes and feelings occurred at certain stages during my cycle:
One week before my menstruation starts I feel irritated with other peoples´ behaviours which seem (to me) to be unacceptable and disrespectful, not only towards me but society in general. The behaviour that I will take issue with during this phase does not go unnoticed during the rest of the month but is certainly not given such a level of importance. I become angered and the need heightens to express my discontentment with certain behaviours and attitudes. I tend to express myself impulsively, emotionally and even aggressively, determined not to be ignored or intimidated. This attempt at communication ends up being blurred by anger. I have noticed that behaviours which trigger such amplified reactions are mostly those which I perceive as indicating attitudes of negligence, selfishness and abuse of trust. During PMS I feel a desperate need to expose and correct injustices, which are felt as real not figments just of my imagination and not exaggerations. The perceived “injustices” seem to gain gravity during this phase.
I will mostly tend to get irritated with my boyfriend if he; does not carry out household chores, appears to take me for granted, attempts to dominate decision-making. I am quicker to use a sharp tone with my daughter if she; is careless of responsibilities like tidying and accomplishing homework or if she attempts to have her way. I become more inflexible with those around me. The “unacceptable” behaviour of others will be perceived by me as uncooperative and detrimental.
This tension mounts and two or three days before menstruation starts I become depressed, unmotivated and extremely fatigued. I desire seclusion, to do as little as possible, to sleep, and eat as much as possible.
Once the blood flow starts in earnest (apologies to the more squeamish), I feel liberated from irritability and sadness. Energy returns multiplied sometimes to ridiculous extents by which I try to achieve an outrageous amount of tasks within a totally inadequate space of time. The feeling that “anything is possible” emerges and usually articulates itself in a cleaning binge during which the house is turned upside down before startled gazes. Optimism and assertiveness replace the previous depression and inertia. The need to communicate reaches new strengths and I feel an urgent but positive necessity to resolve interpersonal problems previously avoided. Insecurity, shyness and reluctance don’t just take a back seat but get out of the car and walk. I no longer feel stumped by negative feelings. In contrast to just before the first day of my period when I try to avoid possible confrontations with people of some relational distance, during this next phase I step up and fearlessly attempt to deal with potentially difficult situations. I feel communicative, confident and determined but not aggressive or irritated.
Other women.
Although I never expected to find identical female experiences of PMS (and did not) commonalities did reappear. I found complicity and could identify with accounts where anger was caused by behaviour and attitudes perceived as uncaring, egotistical or abusive. Phrases that resonated with my own experience were:
I am more sensitive, I have humour variations (…) I get more irritated, outwards, things that usually on other days go over my head (during PMS) I look them head-on, they become the focus,
We are weaker than the rest of the month; we are too weak to put up with stuff. So we blow up because the rest of the month we are stronger, we put up with everything but at that time we are just too weak.
And I also generally feel more dissatisfied, unhappy I get upset with little things and am ultra sensitive and maybe less able to see other´s point of view ,possibly this is a contradiction. (…)It´s fundamentally an internal turmoil that exteriorises when things don’t go as I expected. Normally it affects people that are closer to me, the ones I have more confidence with or just happen to be around with constancy.
I definitely get more sensitive.
I found that similar to my own tendencies, PMS irritability was often directed towards people in ones closest circle targeting behaviour seen as egotistical, abusive or neglectful. One female collaborator explained that; when for example, her partner entered the house after work without greeting her this would be construed as uncaring and likely to cause irritability and tension during PMS.
Discussion
Although collaborators were willing to talk about their experiences of PMS there were difficulties in encouraging specific descriptions about feelings and sentiments or exactly what was the object or source of complaints. This quite often resulted in temperament nuances being buried under blanket definitions such as “bad mood” or “more sensitive”. Personal narratives tended towards self- condemnation with mood alterations referred to as if they were individual personality faults. Several participants suggested during the informal parts of the interviews (when the recording material was turned off), that PMS is used as an excuse for women to simply be bad tempered.
Given the discourse used by participants when talking about PMS, it is not enough to restrict our attention to negative mood fluctuations, how they manifest themselves and exactly what they are directed towards. The importance of discourse analysis becomes evident. The way in which women talk about their own mood alteration during PMS often evidences self-blame, guilt and condemnation of these phenomena. This self-recriminating attitude is evident in expressions and statements such as: We are weaker, I get upset with little things,(I) am ultra sensitive, less able to see other´s point of view and monster.
Listening to different women, it became clear that as PMS has been so successfully categorised as a mere negative “symptom” of the menstrual cycle this has closed the way towards entertaining the possibility that the issues (attitudes, life style, social circumstances) targeted by such a “symptom” may actually be the causes (Ussher, 2003). When talking about what caused discontentment during PMS interviewees seldom went beyond explanations by hormones, weakness due to blood loss et.c.
Sensitivity
The word sensitive was used several times in most interviews.
Because of the frequent mention of sensitivity I felt the need to take a closer look at the concept. Physical sensitivity usually implies a heightened ability to perceive external stimulus, reacting towards it as necessary. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulus_(physiology )).
Within a mental or psychological reality, sensitivity is that which allows a more intense perception of surrounding phenomena (environmental and social) as well as the ability to become psychologically affected by such phenomena reacting to them (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_(human )).
Anger and Discipline in Capitalist Societies.
The idea that irritability, depression, and emotional hypersensitivity are more than consequences of hormonal fluctuations and/or women´s inability to control these states is the central argument of Emily Martin´s Premenstrual Syndrome: Discipline, Work and Anger in Late Industrial Societies (1999). In her discussion, Martin analyses the way in which PMS is conceptualized as a pathology in modern western society. This negative conceptualization of PMS defines as undesirable, mental states such as absent-mindedness, difficulty in concentrating and forgetfulness, as they are seen to reduce efficiency. On the other hand, Martin has also found, in her research, testimonies of increased sensitivity, creativity and artistic ability during the paramenstrual phase. These capabilities however are often overlooked. Martin explains the negative conceptualization of PMS resulting from modern socio-economic values, expectations and demands and reminds us that the capitalist and industrial society we live in values a type of productivity attained through strict disciplining of the mind and body. Creativity and sensitivity are given merit only within the fortunate context of having an artistic occupation. Martin goes on to explore how these societal demands are reproduced in the home a space where efficiency and discipline are expected from the woman to maintain it to perfectionist standards. Included in these demands are the marital and parental expectations imposed on the woman by society and its tools of social conditioning (media).
The necessity of discipline in this scenario is explained when we look not only at the nature of the work and activities but also their repetitiveness, renewal and endlessness perfectly expressed in the popular saying “A woman´s work is never done”. Emily Martin successfully compares this to the Torture of Sisyphus following the example of Simone de Beauvoir before her.
Martin asserts that it is not surprising when these monotonous repetitive and continuous daily activities are accompanied by periodic feelings of absent-mindedness, forgetfulness and resentment. This is voiced quite successfully in one woman´s description of PMS: “Then quite suddenly you feel as if you can’t cope anymore- everything seems too much trouble, the endless household chores, the everlasting planning of meals. For no apparent reason you rebel: “Why should I do everything?” you ask yourself defiantly. I didn’t have to do this before I was married. Why should I do it now?(...)” Unfortunately Katharina Dalton (1979.cited by Martin, 1988 ) who collected this narrative failed to take this woman´s complaints seriously, suggesting in the end that medical advice and treatment be procured.
Martin´s main argument is that PMS is not a case for the doctors. What misleads is that the objects of complaints are nearly always overlooked. The woman´s emotional state and how capabilities have been affected are all too frequently focused on as the problem, a “condition” to be dealt with by the medical profession. PMS is treated as abnormal, causing abnormal and unwarranted reactions despite the increasing burdens placed on women. The woman´s personal situation is nearly always overlooked. Attention is diverted from the target of the negative responses and placed on the woman as the locus of concern and correction. It is rarely contemplated that the object of anger might actually be the cause. Martin suggests that complaints like these should be taken not as warnings of biological flaws inside women that need to be fixed but insights into flaws in society that need to be addressed (Martin, 1988).
On other occasions, the anger and the contents of the complaints might merely be dismissed as an undesirable “symptom” of the Pre-Menstrual phase, not taken seriously and which the woman should be able to control. In the range of attitudes towards PMS we have those that; define it as a medical condition in need of treatment, dismiss it as an unfortunate “symptom”, see it as a pretext for women to be bad tempered or a failure of women to control bodily processes. In fairness, the posture that PMS is not blameable on the woman and should be ignored is possibly well intentioned, but also a frequent aggravation of the angry sentiments as women’s complaints are unheard:
Anger experienced in this way as a result of woman´s intrinsic badness- cannot help but lead to guilt . I would like to suggest the possibility-though at this stage it cannot be proved-that the sources of this diffuse anger could well come from women´s perception, however inarticulate, of their oppression in society: of their lowered wage scales, lesser opportunities for advancement into higher ranks, tacit omission from the language, coercion into roles inside the family and out that demand constant nurturance and self-denial-to only to begin the list. (Martin, E, 1988 p177).
The perception that Martin suggests here is very possibly a sub conscious consequently translating itself into the pre-menstrual “inarticulate” expression of anger and rebellion against injustices that during the rest of the month are tolerated but not resolved. In the words of Shuttle and Redgrove the PMS phase is possibly, “ a moment of truth which will not sustain lies (…) maybe at the paramenstruum, the truth, flares into her consciousness(…) (Shuttle and Redgrove , 1978:58 as quoted by Martin, E, 1988:178)
The “truth” that appears during this time of the month may be suppressed in the rest of the month to the point where the women in question will feel satisfied and contented in their life, hence the surprise when mood lowering occurs and negative sentiments are felt. The woman might feel surprised or shocked and even that a different person has “emerged”. In Martin´s research, one woman even describes herself as “possessed”. In addition to this, there are other descriptions of women feeling that they are not being themselves. The idea that women are “not themselves” or take on another character with whom they do not identify is quite common in the personal narratives. Auto-definitions of women becoming “monsters” or “possessed” are, explains Martin, a result of an internalised oppression of women where they are not allowed to recognise the anger and revolt as belonging to them due to, the expectations had of women, their position in society and how these values have been so successfully “drilled” into us.
Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder and the Subjugation of Women
More recent and extensive research has been carried out by Jane Ussher (2003) who analyses Premenstrual Stress (or Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder as it has recently been rename) as a concept by which women who report the “symptoms” are pathologised and subjugated.
Ussher criticises the labelling of PMS as a condition referred to the medical experts for treatment. Supported by the psychoanalyst Karen Horney´s work where the idea is refuted that PMS is a disorder as it occurs in “otherwise healthy women” (Horney, E, 1931: 2), Ussher challenges broadly accepted hegemonic ideas about PMS, disassembling:
“PMDD as a discursive construct, a nosological category that allows particular aspects of women´s experience to be deemed “symptoms”, (…) a necessary part of any attempt to understand the way in which women´s reproductive bodies are positioned as dysfunctional. The dethroning of experts who pathologies women´s psychological or body experiences, or women´s responses to the circumstances in their lives, is also an essential part of any progressive form of explanation for distress or unhappiness. (Ussher, 2003: 133).
In challenging the ideology provided by experts and dominated still by positivist-realism, Ussher draws attention to how women, when asked to describe their PMS experience, illustrate the internalisation of the dominant medical language presenting a list of key symptoms found in medical descriptions. This does not mean however that the women have nothing more to say about their PMS experience:
“for when given an opportunity to present their own interpretations of their premenstrual experiences in the open ended narrative interview the same women presented a much richer and contextualised picture of their symptomalogy. They talked spontaneously of issues such as relationships, problems at work, needing time to themselves, feelings of overwhelming responsibility, and failing to cope and be in control at all times as PMS (Ussher, 2003:133)”
As a result of the pathologisation of PMS a need to eliminate it as a “condition” is fabricated. Fluctuations, transitions and changes within a woman’s body and mind are designated as undesirable and failings in need of correction. This happens because women are judged under constructions of idealised femininity set within broader idealisations of self-hood, resulting in the alienating diagnosis under discussion. Idealisations of femininity perpetuate constructions of an imaginary woman who is never angry, irritable, unmotivated, lethargic, needy of anything, irrational or self-centred (Ussher, 2003). This construction exists within the broader representation of self-hood based on notions of consistency, sameness and stability. PMS is defined as that which is deviant of these criterion and women experiencing PMS are seen as “other” to what is acceptable, positive and functional. These women are thus alienated from society as being dysfunctional and from themselves in being deprived ownership of their anger.
Ussher explains that women who define themselves as PMS sufferers will often tend to enumerate (and undermine) experiences, behaviours and sensations by using a pseudo-scientific language accepted as legitimate within our society. Within this discourse such manifestations (physical and psychological changes) are defined as being part of a condition, an illness, a pathology caused and resolved by the same factor; physical and chemical reactions, fundamentally biological and physical realities (Ussher, 2003). The tendency within the contemporary medical approach is to value physical manifestations as real, objective and measurable thus easier to treat. Socio-psychological processes are given less consideration with the corresponding interventions awarded second-class status if any (Ussher, 2003). Within this dominant medical framework PMS is seldom regarded as a social or psychological issue but rather a physical and chemical one, treatable by pharmaceuticals alone (Ussher, 2003).
By conceptualising PMS in these essentialisms, attention is kept away, therefore from the object of complaint. Women self-regulate themselves explaining the mood lowering as occurring due to “that time of the month” or “hormones”. Ussher warns of the fallacy of regarding that which aniquilates symptoms as that which causes them in the first place, due to lack or absence. This is exemplified with aspirins that anesthetise headaches or Co2 which can resolve panic attacks, both chemicals can remove symptoms but the lack of them are not the causes of the complaints (Ussher,2003). Ussher applies the same observation to PMS in that hormone fluctuation in the blood is often considered the sole cause of PMS. Hormone therapy has reported some success in lessening “symptoms” of PMS, however a more holistic approach is necessary if we are to find any integral solution. Considerable amounts of women who menstruate and do not use hormonal contraceptives do not report severe PMS. Some women do not report PMS at all. The level of PMS is also known to vary during the life cycle of a woman (Martin, 1988).
When considered in this light, chemical and physical manifestations alone, fail to satisfactorily explain the occurrence of PMS in women.
Socio-biology
Biologically speaking, irritability during PMS has been, and could be, partially explained by hormonal processes that occur during the reproductive cycle. In the event of the ovum not being fertilized and so that the lining of the womb may detach itself from the womb and excreted from the body production of oestrogen and progesterone slow down and eventually stop. The absence of these sex hormones (oestrogens, prostagens and androgens) in our blood can contribute towards influencing psychological disposition lowering mood (Collins et al, 1985,). Although correlations have been found, it is not however such a simple cause and effect process. It has been noted that some women do not suffer from PMS while others experience only mild mood alterations (Serrano and Warnock, 2007, Debrovner, 1982, Lever, 1981, Ramcharan et al,, 1992). Furthermore, PMS and the intensity of it can fluctuate during the life of a woman: The onset of PMDD typically occurs in the late 20s to early 30s, and symptoms become more severe over time. Women do not usually seek treatment until years after the onset of their symptoms, often in their 30s or 40s (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). The incidence of PMS in relation to age parity, and the existence of a male living partner has been examined (and is generally found to go up with each (Martin, 1988 citing Debrovner, 1982)
Schimdt et al (1998, Cited by Warnock, 2007) suggest that women suffering from severe PMS present a different sensitivity to the monthly hormonal fluctuation:
Schmidt et al hypothesize that a different behavioural sensitivity to ovarian sex steroids exists in connection with these disorders. When the level of estrogens declines, depressive symptoms may be triggered in vulnerable women. (Serrano and Warnock, 2007 citing Schidmt et al, 1998)
What differs in women suffering from PMS are not the hormonal processes but the way in which these women respond to the monthly fluctuations: Women with PMDD exhibit normal gonadal steroid changes; however, these changes precipitate or augment an abnormal serotonergic response (Serrano and Warnock, 2007. citing Schimdt et al, 1998)
In the same article where Serrano and Warnock (2007) map the occurrence of depression during main female reproductive transitions the authors examine how PMS, or its more severe form PMDD (Para Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder), and other phases of mood lowering are the result of an amalgamation of factors. The depressive state is usually the result (although frequently subconscious) of an interplay of biological, psychological and socio-cultural factors.
Besides the already mentioned biological and chemical processes that occur in the female body during main reproductive stages, and more specifically to this study, during menstruation; previous scientific research has suggested that women who have been subjected to stressful life conditions during childhood, i.e. physical, emotional and mental negative experiences, are more likely to report aggravated manifestations of PMS (Serrano and Warnock,2007. citing Brand, 2003).
Trauma during childhood alters brain circuits and predetermines emotional responses in adult years due to the alteration of the hypothalamic-pituary and adrenal functioning (Serrano and Warnock, 2007. citing Heim, Meinlschmidt and Nemeroff, 2003).
In addition to this Serrano and Warnock elaborate on how present socio-cultural environment and personal life situations influence the above emotional process, namely the increasing burden placed on women by the paradox between expectations and what is humanely possible. Women increasingly juggle several responsibilities that grow in difficulty such as motherhood, professional life and self-fulfilment (which is often sacrificed). Many women have the extra responsibility of a partner to consider within the daily routine. In a society with escalating financial demands and preoccupations leading women into the work place, quite often without easy access to adequate childcare or education facilities, they are faced with rising pressures to resolve ever-occurring dilemmas. This is further aggravated by being contextualised within a current social scenario where isolation from family support becomes widespread. Such stressful experiences place women at a heightened risk of depressive symptoms, these are possibly the “vulnerable women” referred to in the above quote. “Vulnerable” here must not be understood in the sense of week or fragile but as “susceptible”. Negative life experiences have rendered PMS sufferers subject to a different internal response to hormonal fluctuations. Such women have been “sensitivised”.
Instead of separating the chemical and the physical from the psychological and social factors there is instead an urgent need to determine how the various realities are intertwined, interdependent and more importantly how they influence each other.
The main idea being advanced here is that consistent negative experiences can condition chemical reactions to hormonal fluctuations which in turn influence mood and disposition in women. This affects women particularly when they are traversing reproductive events to which hormonal fluctuations are inherent (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). A more productive approach to PMS will study it as resulting from an interaction of several different factors i. e social and personal factors in the past present and future, biological characteristics (hormones, chemicals) as well as family medical history.
The idea that corporal manifestations can be studied and understood separately from the social and psychological reality that surrounds them, and of which the body is part, has been the target of criticism and elaboration for several decades ( Foucalt, 1979; Henriques et al., 1999 Stainton-Rogers, 1991 as cited by Ussher, 2003 and Scheper-Hughes, 1994).The understanding that is gaining acceptance amongst health professionals realises that we do not experience symptoms in a sociocultural vacuum (Ussher,2003).
Considering the circumstances within which PMS tends to manifests itself one could question whether it is such a dysfunctional phenomenon after all. In fact some kind of utility might even be attributed to this mood alteration as an indicator of surrounding dysfunctionality. It is important to maintain openness to the possibility that PMS might be hinting towards the existence of prejudicial personal circumstances. The communication and expression that something is wrong allows for the possibility of a change to be made but not if the cries for help are constantly undermined by medicine or psychiatry.
PMS can be valued for its indicatorial ability as well as its capacity to motivate the sufferer to stop trying to cope with intolerable and stressful circumstances. At this point it is worth noting that what is being referred to here are circumstances which might be destructive not only for the PMS sufferer but for those within the person´s close social group. PMS is not a symptom of a dysfunctional woman´s body but rather a symptom of a dysfunctional society.
There are few generalised physiological manifestations that turn out to be mere coincidences or freak symptoms without cause or origin. What I wish to propose at this point is that somewhere along the history of human evolution PMS must have had a purpose and served a function, hence its survival into the present.
PMS may have played an essential role during a time of social evolution. The survival of our species as well as the emergence of human symbolic culture may have depended on such a social change.
Gender Solidarity and the Emergence of Human Culture
PMS as an adaptively advantageous trait gained consolidation during the early stages of human evolution and was quite possibly responsible for providing the impetus towards a development of a new female mating strategy necessary for survival. The need for the adoption of a new female reproductive strategy (as outlined by Knight, Power and Watts, 1995) came about due to an increase in subsistence stresses that female proto humans would have been experiencing during the stage of species brain growth (encephalisation). In addition to this and as a direct result increased offspring dependency during the earlier life stages further complicated subsistence problems. Encephalisation created a need not only for an increase in food consumption but also in nutritional variety. This signified growing burdens for females. According to the Knight, Power and Watts model (1995) a change in female strategy involved the gradual development of a ritual performance stipulating conditions of; mating unavailability until meat caught on hunting expeditions was brought to a fixed home base and shared ( see Knight, Power and Watts for a complete account of the gender solidarity/sex strike theory http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/old/pub_knight_power_watts_big.pdf).
I predict that PMS was an important contribution to female coalitions during the primordial ritual/performances carried out when proto-human females sought to mobilise male investment and collaboration.
Given the nature of social life before human cooperativeness young proto-females would have been exposed to turbulent times; affected by emotional and mental distress due to hunger, aggression and grief related to struggles for subsistence. This would have been set within a predicted scenario resembling violent primate social dynamics. These negative experiences could have been a trigger conditioning a specific internal response during monthly hormonal fluctuations which would reproduce itself during adulthood (Serrano and Warnock, 2007). The increased internal sensitivity to hormonal fluctuations or PMS would intensify feelings of anger and revolt. These feelings would have been adaptively useful within the “sex strike” strategy as well as justified since social change as significant as that being discussed would have taken generations to achieve.
If indeed there was a specific time during the lunar and reproductive cycle when the refusal of courtship and demand for collaboration occurred, and Knight, Powers and Watts (1994) situate this “manifestation” around menstruation, PMS by altering temperaments would have facilitated this refusal in opposition to the oestrus phase when intercourse is difficult to refuse. Not only would PMS provide a mental disposition for refusal but it would also allow for a different kind of female to emerge, one who is determined to communicate demands and conditions, who feels the urgent need for a change in behaviour. The heightened creativity during the Menstrual phase, testified by so many narratives (Martin, 1988), would have been extremely helpful in finding new ways to communicate during a time when articulated language did not yet exist. According to the Gender Solidarity / Sex Strike theory (1994) the need to communicate conditions was based on an urgency to motivate male investment for the sake of survival, not only of the females themselves but of their offspring, given the change in circumstances. In addition to this, if we are referring to a phase during the month when females were already synchronising menstruation then there is a strong chance that several females might have been experiencing PMS simultaneously. No matter how different PMS can be from one woman to another, the general mood alteration would have been felt by those for which the ritual/performance/refusal was intended. This is perfectly in tune with narratives where women describe the sensation that they become something other than themselves, “possessed “or “monsters”. One can argue that the females may have directed their anger or aggressiveness towards each other but it is far more likely that in the presence of a common antagonist, (non-cooperative members of a group) this discontentment would have been focused outwards or toward other females endangering the coalition through betrayal. Matters of subsistence would have been far more pressing, monopolising the proto-females attention.
The new female reproductive strategy seeking to mobilise and secure male investment as described by Knight, Power and Watts (1994) has been proposed as the catalysis for the emergence of human symbolic culture being that the ritual/performance would have been the first group action to contain elements of collective deception. Elements of collective deception would have been articulated in the reversal of courtship signals: “wrong time, wrong sex and wrong species”. This characterisation would reiterate the unavailability of women to engage in sexual intercourse unless the conditions were met.
I recall when a male friend of mine confessed that he seemed often to feel attracted to menstruating women although unaware of this fact. One collaborator told me that her boyfriend seems to desire intercourse more when she was menstruating and that she would be reluctant to have sex unless he was caring and affectionate beforehand, this would seduce her. Although this is not the place to explore this extensive and interesting topic, the data collected in interviews seems to indicate a connection between sexual attraction and the menstrual phase. This supports Chris Knight’s idea that the ritual/performance would also have been based on mixed as well as inverted signals: “impending sexual receptivity but unavailability”, “moody but sexy”. Knight, Power and Watts predict that the rituals would feature the use of a red pigment (ochre to signify menstruation) to express impending fertility. Animal and opposite sex characterisation would also be used emphasising and adding drama to the message. This prediction is supported by cross-cultural ethnographic evidence (Knight, Powers and Watts, 1994).
PMS would have offered a strong mental and emotional presence in the dramatisation. Within the performance arts it is a well accepted idea that a felt performance is an altogether more convincing one (Stanislavsky, 1936, Grotowski, 1968 and Brook, 1968). Performers would not have to pretend they are angered, belligerent and determined because that is how they would have really felt.
PMS as well as allowing for the internal presence of anger, determination and revolt would also have facilitated creative ability and sensitivity.
A heightened sensitivity would have allowed for the generation of a corresponding emotional reaction towards sexual and social dynamics characteristic of primate behaviour. The driving force behind the change in female strategy proposed by the authors is more likely to have been emotion seeing as the new strategy would have relied on performance as a tool of expression and persuasion. An increase in sensitivity would have made the emotionality available.
Artists are often described as having an increased sensitivity, positioning some of them at the vanguard of human symbolic culture, changing, defying and even denying that which is established (Hastrup, 2001)
I suggest, at the risk of being criticised limb-to-limb, by some men and even women, that some levels of PMS may still reproduce and maintain cooperation within the household, or small social group. There is an exaggeration of the reactive attitude towards what is perceived as damaging behaviours and attitudes. An increased response can allow for the maintenance of mutual support and collaboration between the couple or within the close social group. Contention, which is concealed during the rest of the month finds a voice (albeit sometimes exaggerated and incoherent). Thousands of years of female oppression with the subversion of menstrual power however has redefined PMS as a phase of random and whimsical irritability, something counterproductive and unbalancing. When “scientific progress” entered the discussion on PMS, the female body became defined as dysfunctional, the focus of medical correction (Ussher, 2003).
It is therefore a difficult task to unpeel the layers of meanings that have been wrapped around PMS making it seem almost impossible to even begin contemplating the idea that PMS might have served a very important purpose at some point during human evolution.
In a modern day context, PMS or rather, some extreme PMS experiences, may not be so useful. This is especially true if the causality of PMS is obscured misleading us as to its true nature and resolution.
I can remember several instances where boyfriends broke up with me because of my bad temperedness; I know this because shortly before the split the same boyfriend surprised me with a gift of evening primrose and starflower oil capsules. Possibly readers are summoning personal memories of the monthly impossible girlfriend that they had to let go of or dramatically aggressive arguments about where a candle should be placed, dishes that are washed but not dried and put away, the toilet seat being left up et.c, wondering at the same time how can this be securing harmony, social collaboration and mutual respect? It is however common knowledge that dramatic arguments over seemingly insignificant situations seldom arise from those particular situations alone. The “insignificant situations” act as a trigger initiating the arguments. All too frequently the insignificant issues are the last drop before the conflict of interests overflow under the strain of trying to silently contain them.
The downfall of PMS is that it is a survival from an adaptive strategy which came about within a very different social scenario.
Women are more isolated in contemporary western society, we do not synchronise quite as much because the closeness has been somewhat reduced. We also wash more frequently and overall wear more clothes, which impedes the diffusion of the pheromones responsible for menstrual synchrony. A female friend may listen to my laments and wonder why I am making such a fuss about something which to her seems trivial as she is not going through PMS and is not experiencing the same problem. We are often isolated in our PMS and our complaints fail to resonate.
More importantly, the complaints do not concern an extreme philandering male behaviour. Most of our sexual partners are not running around copulating with 4 to 5 of our friends, getting us constantly pregnant with their children, leaving us to eat on their own while we starve only to then kill our children when any one of them becomes the dominant male so they can impregnate us again. PMS may no longer need to be tuned to that kind of behaviour but possibly, it still is. This is especially true when negative life experiences during the formative years have imprinted internal responses to hormonal fluctuations. The outward manifestations of PMS may be a disproportionate reaction, out of date and synchrony with most of present social situations. However, the fact that these internal responses have been triggered must not be ignored.
I wish to finish by suggesting that a possible way forward might be achieved through self- reflection and honest communication whereby complaints are accepted and respected as real issues to be resolved and worked through. There needs to be the awareness that stifling complaints can only result in a later (or even present) much more unproductive and damaging articulation of distress. Once communication can open itself up it will lose the need to be exaggerated and aggressive as both sides are intent on understanding each other, offering no resistance to the assimilation of the message´s content.
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http://www.radicalanthropologygroup.org/old/pub_knight_power_watts_big.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitivity_(human )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulus_(physiology)
Interviews
Erica Martins,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Henrique Pereira,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Jorge Pereira,2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Maria Bevilaqua, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, via email.
Maria Joao Alcobia, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
Neusa Dias, 2008, Interview, edited by Viky Mayer, Lagos
terça-feira, 27 de outubro de 2009
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