Unrequited Love and Gay Latino Culture: What Have You Done to my Heart? (review)

Ronggeng Gunung is a combined performing art which thrives especially in southern Ciamis (including Pamarican and Banjarsari) and Pangandaran (including Padaherang and Kalipucang). Generally, this is almost the same as the conventional ronggeng, in which a dancer performs while being accompanied by gamelan (Javanese/Sundanese music instrument) and kawih (Sundanese songs). The main ronggeng dancer is a woman who wears a shawl as a part of the dance to invite males to dance with her. Allegedly, in its mythological narratives, Ronggeng Gunung was created from the grief of a princess who lost her beloved husband and her attempt of revenge toward the killer. This paper is actually intended to find out how are the structures and meanings of Kawih as an inseparable part of Ronggeng Gunung performance. This study applies structuralism as both theoretical approach and method, since it provides the theoretical framework to find out both the structural construction and the meaning of the Kawih. The result of this study shows that kawih accompanying Ronggeng Gunung performance represents a passionate romance of solace, unrequited love, as well as the cultural values of modesty, politeness, and the importance of solidarity in facing every problem encountered by human.

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Culture as a Pathway to Maximizing the Stress-Buffering Role of Social Support

Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences ◽

10.1177/0739986318772490 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (3) ◽

pp. 294-311 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Belinda Campos ◽

Ilona S. Yim ◽

David Busse

Keyword(s):

Social Support ◽

Perceived Social Support ◽

Process Analysis ◽

Mediation Effect ◽

Latino Culture ◽

Future Health ◽

Cortisol Reactivity ◽

Stress Buffering ◽

Conditional Process Analysis

We theorized that sociocultural contexts characterized by a form of interdependence that emphasizes mutual obligations, emotional positivity, and readily accessible social support from family may maximize the benefits of social support. This form of interdependence characterizes Latino culture and is captured by the cultural value familism. Eighty-six Latino and non-Latino participants completed measures of familism and perceived social support before taking part in a standardized laboratory stress task that elicits cortisol reactivity. Cortisol reactivity is an indicator of bodily response to stress that is linked to vulnerability to the adverse effects that stress can have on future health. As predicted, results revealed a moderated mediation pattern. Conditional process analysis showed that familism was indirectly linked to cortisol reactivity through perceived social support, and this mediation effect was moderated by sociocultural context; stress buffering effects were only observed in the Latino sample. These novel findings highlight the role of culture and, specifically, familism in Latinos, for maximizing the benefits that social support can have for stress physiology implicated in long-term health outcomes.

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