Carolyn Fishel Sargent – författare

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.

"Small Wars" gathers together a hard-hitting series of essays that demonstrate how, at the close of the twentieth century, the world's children are affected by global political-economic structures and by everyday practices embedded in the micro-level interactions of local cultures. Perceived as avenging spirits of aborted fetuses in Japan; as obstacles to, or desired commodities of, narcissistic adult fulfillment in North America; as foot soldiers cast onto the paths of drug wars in Spanish Harlem and ethnic wars in the former Yugoslavia; and as 'street kids' and public enemies of the middle classes in Brazil, children - these authors suggest - are losing ground. The modern conception of the child as vulnerable and needing protection is giving way to that of the child as miniature adult, a full-circle return to Philippe Aries' notion of premodern childhood.The authors raise vital questions about social and structural violence and its impact on children and families; about policies that portray children as innocent victims on the one hand and as irredeemable criminals on the other; and about the global economic and political conditions that place many of the world's children at risk. Providing groundbreaking contributions to the contemporary social history and ethnography of childhood, this volume will be important to readers across the social sciences.

Maternity, Medicine, and Power: Reproductive Decisions in Urban Benin explores the complex interplay of cultural beliefs, socio-economic factors, and medical systems influencing the reproductive choices of urban Bariba women in Parakou, Benin. The book examines how traditional Bariba values—such as honor, stoicism, and spiritual vigilance—intersect with the pressures and opportunities of urban life, particularly in the domain of obstetrical care. Urban Bariba women, caught between traditional practices and modern healthcare options, navigate choices shaped by indigenous beliefs about witchcraft, societal status aspirations, and perceptions of medical competence. The research underscores how structural factors, including access to healthcare and government policies promoting hospital births, interact with cultural priorities to inform women's decisions about childbirth and maternal care.Through a combination of ethnographic research, participant observation, and interviews with diverse groups, the study delves into how urbanization and modernization reshape Bariba reproductive practices and beliefs. It highlights the persistence of traditional ideologies, such as the identification of witch babies and solitary childbirth, even as women increasingly seek medical interventions in urban clinics. The findings reveal the nuanced "juggling" of individual agendas, balancing indigenous cosmologies with the pragmatic demands of urban life, while also addressing broader issues of gender, class, and power in the sociopolitical landscape of Benin. Ultimately, the book provides a critical lens on the transformation of health practices in a dynamic cultural and structural context.This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.