'If I can help somebody, then my living will not be in vain': Spirituality, aid, and action in the African American breast cancer survivorship experience.

摘要

Public and scholarly interest exists in breast cancer as a significant health issue in the United States. However, there is limited awareness of how African American women experience cancer, based on their social identities (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, class, etc.). Little scholarship focuses on how African American survivors rely upon spirituality and mutual aid as cultural coping strategies. African American survivors' agency around cancer has been virtually unexplored by medical and cultural anthropology.; An ethnographic approach was used for this theory building research project. It employed a convenience and purposive research design utilizing multiple data from interviews, surveys, and participant-observations. Qualitative data from African American breast cancer survivors, gathered through seventeen months of intensive anthropological fieldwork were used for comparative thematic analysis. Survivor narratives were utilized to provide a comprehensive understanding of the African American cancer survivorship phenomenon.; Through the use of narrative, feminist, applied medical anthropological/behavioral scientific and critical cultural anthropological perspectives an interpretive model of African American breast cancer survivors' survival strategies was developed. Termed “leaning strategies,” the specific coping techniques presented included survivors' relationships to God, their personal “spirituality of survival,” and their use of mutual aid networks. Results suggest that African American cancer survivors psychosocially adjust to cancer utilizing these specific cultural strategies. African American breast cancer survivors' experiences consequently guide their health agency.; Their demonstrative agency is best articulated through their leadership abilities. Examining survivors' leadership suggests their activities can be conceptually understood through particular “transformative leadership” roles. These African American breast cancer survivors' roles are termed “thriving roles.” Through the specific symbolic roles—midwife, choreographer, weaver, intercessor, and seeking healer—African American survivors transform their survivorship into opportunities for cross-cultural exchange, mutual aid, resistance, and empowerment.