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23 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Is reproduction natural or is it culturally constructed?
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Knowledge about reproduction is gendered. Theories of reproduction are theories of men and women and their place in society.
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Bronislaw Malinowski- Trobrianders
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Fieldwork during WW1. The Trobrianders are a matrilineal society where the key relationship is between the sister's son and the mother's brother.
Very good knowledge of anatomy because are hunters and have relations with local cannibal tribes but believe that sex has no relation to making babies, and therefore there is no role for the father in rearing children. Rather, marriage defines fatherhood. Child made through nurturing- you are made through your mother's social position |
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David Schneider- Yap Islanders of Micronesia
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Woman entered by ancestors of husband.
Conception in humans and animals seen as separate- opposite to Western ideas. Motherhood and fatherhood very different. |
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Barbara Deden
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Separation between sex and procreation in Western society
Notion that sex leads to the reproduction very recent- used to be more ambiguous- thought that baby in womb was fully developed, or a monster etc. |
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Sarah Franklin
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Although we think our beliefs about conception and reproduction are certain, there is increasing uncertainty- Western theories only explain successful conception.
1 in 4 pregnancies end in miscarriages and no sufficient scientific explanation. |
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Science, sex and society
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Science is a discourse on masculinity and femininity that is culturally shaped
In Western society we look to science to explain gender differences Analogy of the Himba and colour- the way in which we describe the world affects the way in which we see it --> same in describing men and women's roles- e.g. Gitanos |
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Thomas Laqueur: pre and post-Enlightenment discourses about sex
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Post-Enlightenment thought:
Two sexes, two genders. Differences between men and women the result of biology, beyond the reach of culture. i.e. people who have sex changes will always be thought of as their original sex. We project our ideas about what men and women are like onto biology Pre-Enlightenment thought: One sex, two genders. Men and women different not because of their bodies but because they play different roles in society. They have different destinies, as dictated by God- hence they have different bodies. Women's genitals seen as a man's reproductive organs but on the inside. All female fluids were thought of as men's fluids but with less heat. Aristotle: menstrual blood the same as semen but semen with generative power. Men and women come from the same person (Adam and Eve story) but God chose to make men the more prominent gender. |
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Karen Newman quote
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"The human body as an object of scientific study is always already a cultural object invested with meaning"
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Emily Martin: science and cultural stereotypes
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Scientific knowledge about human reproduction is shaped by cultural stereotypes.
These stereotypes imply that masculinity is more valued than femininity and these are represented in the way scientists talk about sperm: - Sperm production seen as spectacular - Egg production associated with death (it's wasted each month) - Sperm are active, streamlined, have strong taste, penetrate - Christianity link- God made baby Jesus, not Mary - E.g. book 'Mummy Laid an Egg' and other explanations shows the egg allowing millions of sperm to try to penetrate it. Sperm is given active adjectives whereas the egg is given passive ones |
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Jean Jackson- Tukanian
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North Western Amazon.
Patrilineal, patrilocal, exogamous (marriage only allowed outside the social group). Men conceptualised as 'brothers' and women as 'dangerous outsiders'. All men have to marry women who are from other tribes (different language groups). Men live in long houses. Women brought in from the outside often captured. |
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Anna Meigs- beliefs about male pregnancy among the Hua of Papua New Guinea
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Two forms of sexual classification: men vs women and clean vs polluted.
Older women and younger men: cannot pollute and can become polluted. Older men and younger women: are inherently polluted and can pollute Strong segregation- men avoid foods associated with women. |
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Janet Carsten- Malays in Langwaki
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Kinship = process of becoming a person from conception.
Feeding makes kinship Bodily substances grow and change through life. Social identity and physical substance are both continuously acquired and alterable |
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Andrew Canessa- Pocabaya in the Bolivian Andes
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Personhood acquired through time, rituals of reciprocity
Ritucha: social birth and first haircut Marriage: when you become a full person and a full member of the community |
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Linda Layne: pregnancy support groups in the USA
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Role of name-giving in the establishment of personhood in the West
Separation between social and biological birth Personhood can be asserted before birth or after the death of the embryo/foetus The hard work that these parents put in to try to assert the personhood of their dead embryos and foetuses shows that in the broader cultural context their personhood is highly questionable |
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Reproduction and morality: Sandelowski and Daniels
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Maragrete Sandelowski: infertility as a "failure of volition" (your will) in wanting it too little or too much
Cynthia Daniels: Notion of foetal harm- shows it to be both gendered and racialised. Smoking and drinking while pregnant thought of not as a personal problem but as a social problem. Reflects social attitudes as mothers from certain groups seen as the perpetrators. |
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Janelle Taylor: birth options and consumption
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Ultrasound in the USA- people use them to bond with the baby and take pictures.
Reproduction increasingly a matter of consumption- the foetus constructed as a commodity at the same time as being constructed as a person Birth plans: different options over having birth |
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Linda Layne: sense of deprivation and pain from mothers who lose their babies felt in terms of consumption
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Seeing baby-related objects on shop shelves
Gift-giving trajectories that contribute to person-making in babies and parents. Objects that memorialise a deceased infant or a miscarriage as a person Footprints and handprints as symbols of individuality and humanity |
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Paloma Gay y Blasco- adoption of Chinese children in the USA
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Used to be up to 80,000 a year. Study on how parents portrayed adoption on the internet. Process long- so there is a process where parents construct a person lon before it even exists, e.g. through name-giving.
Stories of them crying with longing for their non-existent children; descriptions of it being a magical adventure, journey; reports of dreams and supernatural events. Story of a family who were matched with 'Rose'. Went to meet match but did not work out, so asked for a rematch and chose another. Fit very well and so second child was called Rose. Ideas of consumption and constructed personhood. |
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Arnold Van Gennep- features of rites of passage
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They accompany every change of "place, state, social position and age"
Three phases: separation, margin (neither one thing or the other) and aggregation Androgynous bodies: maleness and femaleness the result of human action e.g. shaving legs, female circumcision to adequately 'sex' a women |
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Aud Talle- sexing in Somalia
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Hard bits of the body from father, soft bits from mother
So they remove the female bits from men's bodies and the male parts from females. Female infibulation: - Removal of outer genitalia - labia majora and labia minora sewn together leaving a small hole for urine and menstrual blood - infibulation creates virginity- virginity not a natural thing - Man who manages to break through the scar tissue without any other tools is seen as masculine |
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Gilbert Herbert- Sambia of Papua New Guinea
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"masculinity is the product of a regime of ritualised homosexuality leading to manhood"
Boys live with mothers until separated aged 7-10 and initiated into men's houses. Engage in homosexual practices with other young men, performing oral sex When they are older the give their semen to the younger boys Semen thought of as milk transformed, and so they need it to grow Women's fluids seen as dangerous to men's health, therefore men have to learn to manage contact with women Therefore rites of passage for men are about managing pollution and growth- e.g. they thrash their skin to make it grow When they marry they become completely heterosexual |
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Suzanne Kessler- medical management of intersexuality in infants
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Western society allows only two sexes- babies cannot come home from the hospital with ambiguity over their sex
Therefore doctors under pressure to medically alter the ambiguous babies' genitalia |
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Jonathan Benthall- corporal punishment in British public schools
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Sometimes conceptually indistinguishable from torture.
Very ritualistic and a rite of passage Erotic dimension e.g. making boys take their trousers down, the word for beaten ('screwed') the same as for having sex. About hardening boys to make them men and encouraging unity in the classroom. |
