mod 7 review Flashcards
a) Outline the different beliefs and practices that reveal how reproductive behaviour is culturally patterned. What has been the traditional focus concerning reproduction?
This cultural patterning includes menstrual beliefs and practices; restrictions on the circumstances in which sexual activity may occur; representations and practices surrounding pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum period; understandings and management of infertility, and the significance of menopause.
b) What has been anthropology’s emphasis?
substantial anthropological literature emphasizes the centrality of reproduction to global social, political, and economic processes
What has been the recent focus of anthropological cross-cultural research into reproduction?
Anthropologists have sought to use cross-cultural data from preindustrial societies to help resolve women’s health problems in the industrialized world.
Anthropologists have also involved themselves in global initiatives to improve maternal and child health
d) Since the 1970s, what have been three areas of anthropological research?
Since the 1970’s, anthropological interest has turned to the linkages among cultural constructions of gender, the cultural shaping of motherhood, and reproductive beliefs and practices.
a) In terms of the relationship between a woman’s social position and maternity, how does a woman become an adult? How is her prestige enhanced?
A woman becomes an adult by childbearing, and her prestige may be greatly enhanced by bearing numerous male children.
In which type of societies do we see a great deal of pressure for women to procreate? Why?
Pressure to reproduce is especially intense in Agrarian societies, which have a high demand for labor.
c) How does this view differ in hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies?
In many hunter-gatherer and horticulture societies, motherhood and reproduction are less emphasized. “contrary to our expectation that motherhood provides women everywhere with a natural source of emotional satisfaction and cultural value, we found that neither women nor men in very simple societies celebrate women as nurturers or women’s
In terms of procreation, how are women viewed in hunter-gatherer societies?
“contrary to our expectation that motherhood provides women everywhere with a natural source of emotional satisfaction and cultural value, we found that neither women nor men in very simple societies celebrate women as nurturers or women’s unique capacity to give life”
a) In regards to the feminist concern at the gap between the growing availability of medical technology and understandings of the social, legal and moral implications, what three things have prompted fears that women’s bodies are being objectified as medical experimentation sites?
Globally, feminists have expressed concern at the gap between the growing availability of the technology and the public understanding of its social, legal and moral implications.
- The low success rates of infertility technologies, the high expense, and the physical toll on women have prompted concerns that women’s bodies are objectified as sites of medical experimentation.
How does Ginsburg (1987) interpret the struggle over abortion rights in America?
She suggests that the focus of this conflict of interests is the relationship among reproduction, nurturance, sex, and gender. Using life histories of pro-life and pro-choice activists in Fargo, north Dakota, she reveals how different historical conditions affect reproductive decisions.
a) What is meant by “natural birth”? Is there a clear-cut definition?
When asked about natural birth, midwives and the birthing women respond in predictable ways: “it means drug-free”; “it means no interventions”; “it means non-medicalized, the opposite of hospital birth”.
When probed, however, natural birth is often problematized by midwives and women themselves.
What is the author’s concern with having a “specific idea about natural birth” and its potential impact on some women?
Having a specific ideal of natural birth necessarily means that some women will fail to accomplish it. A young woman said she would be “ashamed” in front of her classmates and instructors if she ended up in the hospital.
c) Briefly describe the “myth of natural birth”, including the myth it seems to counter.
Natural birth is a myth that states that “if you are a together person, you can squat in the corner and have your baby by candlelight (and) you have to have a vaginal birth to achieve some sort of womanhood.”
The myth of natural birth has served, however, to counter another myth: “that childbirth is so horrible that you need to be knocked out in the hospital”.
a) Identify the five choices a woman may have in labor
Choices in labour may include where to labour, whom to have with her, what to eat and drink, what position to labour in, and how to manage the pain and the progression of labour.
Briefly explain the importance of “informed choice” in midwifery.
The importance of informed choice in midwifery cannot be overstated.
It is intended to foster a sense of self-knowledge and personal responsibility among clients, and to create an egalitarian midwife-client relationship in which individualized, low-tech, even intuitive ways of knowing and doing are explored, valued, and acted upon.
What was significant about Giselle’s “informed choice” use of technology in regards to the political goals of midwifery?
Giselle’s “informed choice” use of technology might be seen to erode midwifery’s political goal to resist the medicalization of birth and the social control of women’s bodies by patriarchal institutions.
Giselle decided to use prenatal technology in terms of the midwifery principle of informed choice. She was well informed and acted on the basis of what was right for her, rather than having the test as part of a routine at a doctors office.
a) How midwives think about the pain of labor is key to their view of pregnant and birthing bodies as natural capable and competent. Outline the three components of the “midwifery model of pain”.
One, the pain of labor is not continuous like most other pain: contractions are intermittent and build slowly in intensity, so one can learn to cope. Two, the pain of labor is “pain with a purpose”: you are pushing out your baby. Three, Labor pain is universal: “women have been doing this for centuries. Our bodies are designed to do it well”.
a) What types of positions/work did most women fulfill?
cultural or educational institutions
