Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge : Cross-Cultural Perspectives / edited by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd, Carolyn F. Sargent ; with a foreword by Rayna Rapp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Davis-Floyd, Robbie, Author.

Contributor:

Davis-Floyd, Robbie, editor.

Sargent, Carolyn F., 1947- editor.

Rapp, Rayna, writer of foreword.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Birth customs.

Childbirth--Cross-cultural studies.

Childbirth.

Knowledge, Sociology of.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (528 p.)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1997]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This benchmark collection of cross-cultural essays on reproduction and childbirth extends and enriches the work of Brigitte Jordan, who helped generate and define the field of the anthropology of birth. The authors' focus on authoritative knowledge--the knowledge that counts, on the basis of which decisions are made and actions taken--highlights the vast differences between birthing systems that give authority of knowing to women and their communities and those that invest it in experts and machines. Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge offers first-hand ethnographic research conducted by anthropologists in sixteen different societies and cultures and includes the interdisciplinary perspectives of a social psychologist, a sociologist, an epidemiologist, a staff member of the World Health Organization, and a community midwife. Exciting directions for further research as well as pressing needs for policy guidance emerge from these illuminating explorations of authoritative knowledge about birth. This book is certain to follow Jordan's Birth in Four Cultures as the definitive volume in a rapidly expanding field.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

Introduction

1. Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction

2. An Evolutionary Perspective on Authoritative Knowledge about Birth

3. Fetal Ultrasound Imaging and the Production of Authoritative Knowledge in Greece

4. The Production of Authoritative Knowledge in American Prenatal Care

5. What Do Women Want?

6. Authoritative Knowledge and Birth Territories in Contemporary Japan

7. Ways of Knowing about Birth in Three Cultures

8. Authoritative Touch in Childbirth

9. Authority in Translation

10. Changing Childbirth in Eastern Europe

11. Resistance to Technology-Enhanced Childbirth in Tuscany

12. Intuition as Authoritative Knowledge in Midwifery and Home Birth

13. Randomized Controlled Trials as Authoritative Knowledge

14. Confessions of a Dissident

15. "Women come here on their own when they need to"

16. Maternal Health, War, and Religious Tradition

17. Heeding Warnings from the Canary, the Whale, and the Inuit

18. An Ideal of Unassisted Birth

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

INDEX

Notes:

Includes index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-520-91873-8

0-585-05522-X

OCLC:

1149450136