i Patrick W. Staib Anthropology This dissertation is approved, and it ...

(found Jesus),” converted to Christianity, and promised that he would work off what he
owed. Danilo complied.
Chele worked for a few more days, but he was acting subdued and somewhat
bashful. Eventually, he gathered his things and left without leaving any word. He owed
Danilo money, but Danilo was glad to be rid of him. Danilo knew that Chele would not
return out of pena, or shame, for the way he had acted. Danilo and his family were
accommodating and accepting of him. As Doña Marta, Danilo’s wife, expressed:
No tenía derecho de abusar nuestra confianza de esa forma. Le dimos techo,
comida, y trabajo. ¿Qué más querría? Muchas veces el trabajador no piensa en
formar una buena relación basada en honor y confianza. En vez, quieren
aprovechar y pierden a la larga. (He had no right to abuse our trust. We gave him
a roof, food, and work. What else did he want? A lot of the time workers don’t
think about creating a good relationship based on trust and respect. Instead, they
take advantage [of the situation] and lose out in the end.)
The relationship between landowner and laborer is a delicate one. According to
Aihwa Ong (1987), Malaysian factory workers experience spirit possession possibly
because of frustration or discomfort with the “unnatural” arrangement of being in a wage-
earning hierarchy. Louise Lamphere (1993) wrote of ways to mediate the contradictions
of hierarchical relationships in industrial modes of production. The case of coffee
laborers is similar. Employees’ reactions to dissatisfaction or frustration may, as in the
case of Las Grietas, occur in the form of betrayal or thievery.
In my experience it is common in Nicaragua, and especially in impoverished
areas, for a worker to breech the trust between employer and employee in favor of a
short-term advantage, thus jeopardizing a relationship that could have proven rewarding
in the long-term. My family has experienced this on many levels working with laborers
or caretakers who have turned out to be untrustworthy. This phenomenon is widespread
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