Abstract

In Gilgit, capital of the Gilgit-Baltistan region in northern Pakistan, leucorrhea – vaginal discharge known in the vernacular as safaid pani, or ‘white water’ - serves as both a medical diagnosis and signifier of the chronicity of the reproductive, social, and emotional burdens endured by women. While ethnomedical providers explained safaid pani as resulting from relatively benign forms of ‘weakness’, which required minimal dietary or ethno-botanical recourse, allopathic physicians approached discharge as evidence of numerous pathologies that necessitated protracted and sometimes also expensive treatments. Physicians’ clinical assessments were not solely biomedical, but also integrated informal folk and formal ethnomedical theories of causation. Clinical diagnoses that affirmed leucorrhea as a pathophysiology substantiated women’s belief that it was proof of the destructive effects of sustained social inequity, peril, and distress on the body, and the uterus in particular. Women and their treating providers recognized the power of the (dys)functional uterus to not only threaten women’s reproductive wellness but also their social, marital, and familial status, which hinged on their ability to become pregnant and give birth, to sons especially. Because of the ailing uterus’s expansive importance, weeping wombs served as a potent source for women’s claims making and calls for attention and care.

摘要

在巴基斯坦北部吉尔吉特-巴尔蒂斯坦地区的首府吉尔吉特，白带（白带，俗称 safaid pani 或“白水”）既是一种医学诊断，也是生殖、社会和慢性疾病的标志。女性承受的情感负担。虽然民族医学提供者将萨法德帕尼解释为相对良性的“虚弱”形式，需要最少的饮食或民族植物资源，但对抗疗法医生将出院视为多种病理的证据，这些病理需要长期且有时还昂贵的治疗。医生的临床评估不仅是生物医学的，而且还综合了非正式的民间和正式的民族医学因果理论。临床诊断证实白带是一种病理生理学，证实了女性的信念，即白带是持续的社会不平等、危险和痛苦对身体（尤其是子宫）造成破坏性影响的证据。妇女及其治疗提供者认识到功能失调的子宫不仅会威胁妇女的生殖健康，还会威胁她们的社会、婚姻和家庭地位，而这取决于她们怀孕和生育的能力，尤其是生男孩的能力。由于患病的子宫具有广泛的重要性，哭泣的子宫成为女性提出主张并呼吁关注和护理的有力来源。妇女及其治疗提供者认识到功能失调的子宫不仅会威胁妇女的生殖健康，还会威胁她们的社会、婚姻和家庭地位，而这取决于她们怀孕和生育的能力，尤其是生男孩的能力。由于患病的子宫具有广泛的重要性，哭泣的子宫成为女性提出主张并呼吁关注和护理的有力来源。妇女及其治疗提供者认识到功能失调的子宫不仅会威胁妇女的生殖健康，还会威胁她们的社会、婚姻和家庭地位，而这取决于她们怀孕和生育的能力，尤其是生男孩的能力。由于患病的子宫具有广泛的重要性，哭泣的子宫成为女性提出主张并呼吁关注和护理的有力来源。