ANTH/WMNS 324 Anthropology of Gender

24 March 2009Gender, Politics and

Reproduction

• What do you think is the most important theoretical question and the most important empirical question to be addressed about the relationship between human reproduction and gender? Discuss and defend your choice with reference to the chapters by Davis-Floyd, Kligman, Ragoné and Gruenbaum.

Davis-Floyd

• Davis-Floyd presents a symbolic account, equating birth with a rite of passage, to argue that in the United States women’s bodies are understood to be deficient and that this message is ritually reinforced in the process of giving birth.

• Some current information from Canada: http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/Pregnancy/Hospital-Birth.aspx?articleID=7575&categoryID=PG-nh3-01d

Davis-Floyd

• Her theoretical question: What are the cultural and symbolic understandings of child bearing?

• Her empirical question: How can we understand American child birth practices?

Kligman

• Kligman provides a political and economic account, examining the ways in which Ceausescu’s regime in Romania controlled women’s reproduction capacity, while the economic circumstances of the state and of the families worked against this. Richer educated political elite women were in a better position to control their reproductive choices while poor women, especially those from marginalized groups such as the Gypsies, had little ability to do so.

Kligman

• Her theoretical question: How are policy and economic practices of the state experienced by citizens?

• Her empirical question: How did the reproductive policies and economic conditions in Ceausescu’s Romania affect women’s reproductive rights and family economy?

Ragoné

• Ragoné presents a cultural and symbolic account of how women interpret being surrogate mothers. She examines their beliefs about the degree of relatedness between a gestational surrogate mother and the child, and between a traditional surrogate mother and the child.

Ragoné

• Her theoretical question: What are the cultural and symbolic understandings of child bearing?

• Her empirical question: How is surrogate motherhood understood by those engaged in the practice as surrogates, prospective parents, and reproductive practitioners?

Gruenbaum

• Gruenbaum presents a political and social account of female genital cutting, to examine the social pressures on mothers to circumcise their daughters. This is seen as linked to women’s economic dependence on men.

Gruenbaum

• Her theoretical question: What are the social and economic pressures that support the continued existence of harmful traditional practices?

• Her empirical question: Why does FGC continue in Sudan and how can it best be addressed in order to eliminate it?

• How might you answer the question asked at the beginning of this class if it were on the exam?

How might you examine any of these cases using a different framework?

• For example, how would you approach the study of US hospital birthing practices using a political economy framework?

• How might you analyse Ceausescu’s pronatalist policies from a symbolic framework?

• How might you look at surrogacy from a political-economic or social perspective?

• What would you focus on if you wanted to carry out a symbolic analysis of female genital cutting?

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