Birth in four cultures
About this book
While the process of childbirth is, in some sense, everywhere the same, it is also everywhere different in that each culture has produced a birthing system that is strikingly dissimilar from the others. Based on her fieldwork in the United States, Sweden, Holland, and Yucatan, Jordan develops a framework for the discussion and investigation of different birthing systems. Illustrated with examples and anecdotes from Jordan's own fieldwork, this comparative ethnography brings the reader to a deeper understanding of childbirth as a culturally grounded, biosocially mediated, and interactionally achieved event.
Subjects
- birth customs
- childbirth
- cross-cultural comparison
- cross-cultural studies
- folklore
- midwifery
- netherlands, social life and customs
- obstetric labor
- obstetrics
- parturition
- religious aspects
- social aspects
- social aspects of obstetrics
- sociology
- sweden, social life and customs
- united states, social life and customs
- yucatan peninsula