NERVES AND EMOTIONAL PLAY IN NORTHEAST BRAZIL

Current theory on emotion posits that different cultures' emotional vo cabularies constitute sets of glosses for negotiated understandings of interpersonal interaction. Folk illness terms can overlap emotion glo sses, as in the case of the Northeast Brazilian folk ailment nervos (' 'nerves''), associated with anxiety and anger. Working-class women in Northeast Brazil can use their nervos to change others' behavior in so cial situations in which they otherwise would have limited control. Ra ther than passively feel emotion or submissively suffer illness, women actively play with emotion and illness roles. A woman's manipulations are more or less successful, depending on her skill at orchestrating perceptions of her situation.