Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood

"Ideologies and Technologies of Motherhood is nothing less than the most incisive anthology available on the subject of maternity and inequality: it is a powerful and timely contribution to anthropology, feminism, and critical race studies." -- Sarah Franklin, Lancaster University "The strength of this powerful collection lies in more than the vivid detail of the cases, written with freshness and immediacy as they are, and in more than the illumination it brings to theoretical discussions of parenthood and kinship. It also lies in the circumstances which the individual pieces embrace. These bring home, forcefully and concretely, the precariousness of social identity, even when that identity is the 'certainty' of motherhood. The result is a courageous book--or rather its subjects are very often courageous. I found it a humane and inspiring enterprise." -- Marilyn Strathern, author of After Nature and co-author of Technologies ofProcreation "These essays explode the myth of the 'good mother,' the sacrificial, devoted, and fulfilled mother who is implicitly white and middle class. By examining the lives of white mothers of black children, homeless mothers, lesbian co-parents, mothers who adopt, and women who are infertile, have miscarried, or have borne children with disabilities, we can glimpse the ways in which real mothers cope with their everyday situations and with cultural definitions of motherhood that often stigmatize them. But we also see how women in the U.S., Britain, Egypt, and Nicaragua validate new constructions of one of women's most central identities." -- Louise Lamphere, University of New Mexico "This book is an exciting and useful contribution to the racial politics of reproduction and mothering. Combining ethnography and feminist theory, the essays break entirely new ground and introduce us to mothers we rarely learn about." -- Dorothy Roberts, author of Killing theBlack Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning ofLiberty

Helena Ragone is Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Massachussetts in Boston. She is co-editor of Situated Lives: Gender and Culture in Everyday Life (Routledge, 1997). France Winddance Twine is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle.

About the Contributors Foreword by Rayna Rapp Acknowledgments Introduction: Motherhood on the Faultlines-Helena Ragone and France Winddance Twine Part I: Racial Ideologies and Racial Realities 1. Ideologies of Motherhood and Kinship in U.S. Adoption-Christine Ward Gailey 2. Of Likeness and Difference: How Race is Being Transfigured by Gestational Surrogacy-Helena Ragone 3. Bearing Blackness in Britain: The Meaning of Racial Difference for White Birth Mothers of African-Descent Children--France Winddance Twine Part II: Narratives of Personhood 4. Baby Things as Fetishes? Memorial Goods, Simulacra, and the "Realness" Problem of Pregnancy Loss- Linda L. Layne 5. Missing Motherhood: Infertility, Technology, and Poverty in Egyptian Women's Lives-Marcia Claire Inhorn 6. "Real Motherhood," Class, and Children with Disabilities-Gail Landsman Part III: Blurred Boundaries: Legal, Political, and Economic Parameters of Motherhood 7. Non-Biological Mothers and the Legal Boundaries of Motherhood: An Analysis of California Law-Susan Dalton 8. Uno hace qualquier cosa por los hijos: Motherwork and Politics in Sandinista Nicaragua-Diana Mulinari 9. Mythical Mothers and Dichotomies of Good and Evil: Homeless Mothers in the United States-Deborah Connolly Afterword by Kristin Luker Bibliography Index