Maternities and Modernities

Colonial and Postcolonial Experiences in Asia and the Pacific
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-521-58614-6
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 319 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 522 g

Feminist theories have focused on contemporary, Western, middle-class experiences of maternity. This volume brings other mothers, from Asia and the Pacific, into scholarly view, aiming to show that birthing and mothering can be a very different experience for women in other parts of the world. The contributors document a wide variety of conceptions of motherhood, and drawing on ethnographic and historical research, they explore the relationships between motherhood as embodied experience and the local discourses on maternity. They show how the experience of motherhood has been influenced by missionaries, by colonial policies and by the introduction of Western medicine and biomedical birthing methods, and raise important questions about the costs and benefits of becoming a modern mother in these societies.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ram, Kalpana

Jolly, Margaret

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie Kulturpsychologie, Ethnopsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Politische Ethnologie, Recht, Organisation, Identität
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Religionsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Materielle Kultur, Wirtschaftsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Familiensoziologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Umwelt und Kultur, Kulturökologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: colonial and postcolonial plots in histories of maternities and modernities Margaret Jolly; 1. Shaping reproduction: maternity in early twentieth-century Malaya Lenore Manderson; 2. Modernizing the Malay mother Maila Stivens; 3. 'Good wives and mothers' or 'dedicated workers'? Contradictions of domesticity in the 'mission of sisterhood', Travancore, south India Jane Haggis; 4. Maternity and the story of enlightenment in the colonies: Tamil coastal women, south India Kalpana Ram; 5. The dai and the doctor: discourses on women's reproductive health in rural Bangladesh Santi Rozario; 6. Other mothers: maternal 'insouciance' and the depopulation debate in Fiji and Vanuatu, 1890-1930 Margaret Jolly; 7. Just add water: remaking women through childbirth, Anganen, Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea Leanne Merrett-Balkos; 8. From sisters to wives: changing contexts of maternity on Simbo, Western Solomon Islands Christine Dureau; Epilogue: maternal experience and feminist body politics: Asian and Pacific perspectives Kalpana Ram.