{"product_id":"public-loves-private-troubles-migration-technology-and-intimacy-in-rural-indigenous-guatemala-9780817362010","title":"Public Loves, Private Troubles: Migration, Technology, and Intimacy in Rural Indigenous Guatemala","description":"\u003cp\u003e Anthropologist Meghan Farley Webb's ethnography, \u003ci\u003ePublic Loves, Private Troubles\u003c\/i\u003e, uses the lens of cellphones and other digital technologies to unpack marriage, love, sexuality, and family issues of Kaqchikel Maya women who remain in Guatemala while their husbands are part of the transnational migration workforce. Indigenous intimacy has been underexplored in ethnographic literature, and this is among the first books to focus on information technology's impact on intimacy and family in the Maya area. Overall, Webb shows how Maya women are empowered with their more autonomous lives when the husbands are absent but also are constrained by social media monitoring of their activities. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e To begin, Webb surveys the Tecp?n highland setting and civil war and migration history. She discusses how neoliberal policies are manifested in the financial and emotional stress of having to leave for the United States for economic opportunities. Chapter 1 characterizes the lives of Maya women in Guatemala who \"endure\" while their husbands are working abroad. Webb describes how marriage, family, and even the Catholic Church shape how the women see themselves and their situations. Chapter 2 delves into the history and use of technologies, such as cellphones and WhatsApp, and how they affect communication in these transnational households. Insight is given to the family and personhood. Chapter 3 focuses on the prominent use of the Facebook platform. Men use the app to conduct extramarital affairs, but the app is also used by couples as a way to express a public performance of devotion and a happy family. Chapter 4 focuses on the surveillance, including malicious gossip, that Kaqchikel women are subjected to especially from their mothers-in-law, who live nearby or in the same household. The narrative culminates in a discussion of how many wives are happier and more empowered without the men at home, yet they still can experience uncertainty, loneliness, and depression. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eMeghan Farley Webb\u003c\/b\u003e is a researcher at Wuqu' Kawoq's Center for Indigenous Health Research and the Guatemala Country Director at La Isla Network.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Alabama Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51276813336850,"sku":"9780817362010","price":34.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_dfdacadd-0fcd-4b41-9310-a7b499cb1e2e.jpg?v=1747140499","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/public-loves-private-troubles-migration-technology-and-intimacy-in-rural-indigenous-guatemala-9780817362010","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}