Entre a beleza e a saúde: Itinerários terapêuticos de tratamento da acne entre mulheres do Bairro de Malhazine na cidade de Maputo

Abstract

The present study analyzes the logics that structure the treatment of acne in the Malhazine neighborhood in the city of Maputo. During the literature review, it was possible to identify two perspectives, to approach the subject that are discussed separately: the collectivist perspective and the individualistic perspective. The collectivist perspective argues that the choice of an individual's therapeutic itinerary is related to the socio-cultural context to which he is inserted and makes him responsible for his choices. Freidson (1988) apud Alves (1993) and Silva-Júnior (2013) argue that culture is a condition for the choice of the therapeutic itinerary, since from the the moment that the individual is socially defined as sick, a sequence of practices is initiated aimed at a therapeutic solution. It is from the experience of the disease that the individual chooses his treatment and his therapeutic itinerary. The disease experience is permeated with shared meanings socially, where each social group builds its own explanation for the origin, and these explanations form a set of representations, knowledge and practices of a social group. According to Alves (1993), the individualistic perspective tends to reduce human completion in the face of illness to psychological issues. For Triandis (1994) apud Ferreira et al (2002), the perspective takes root in contexts in which social organization is made around autonomous individuals, in which they seek therapeutic solutions in a unique way. For a better understanding of the logics that structure the treatment of acne, we performed a qualitative ethnographic research in the Malhazine neighborhood in the city of Maputo. Based on the data collected in the field, it is possible to understand how the research participants reach a specific healing system, how they use or participate in their sociability networks. And through these data it is also possible to notice how women build the your femininity through the use of some cosmetics. This study allows us to understand how women go through a certain therapeutic itinerary, with the aim of looking for a better appearance. (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)