Ebook399 pages10 hours
Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this ebook
Most women in the West use contraceptives in order to avoid having children. But in rural Gambia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, many women use contraceptives for the opposite reason—to have as many children as possible.
Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, Contingent Lives explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates aging and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views aging as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma. Viewing each of these two models from the perspective of the other, Caroline Bledsoe produces fresh understandings of the classical anthropological subjects of reproduction, time, and aging as culturally shaped within women's conjugal lives. Her insights will be welcomed by scholars of anthropology and demography as well as by those working in public health, development studies, gerontology, and the history of medicine.
Using ethnographic and demographic data from a three-year study in rural Gambia, Contingent Lives explains this seemingly counterintuitive fact by juxtaposing two very different understandings of the life course: one is a linear, Western model that equates aging and the ability to reproduce with the passage of time, the other a Gambian model that views aging as contingent on the cumulative physical, social, and spiritual hardships of personal history, especially obstetric trauma. Viewing each of these two models from the perspective of the other, Caroline Bledsoe produces fresh understandings of the classical anthropological subjects of reproduction, time, and aging as culturally shaped within women's conjugal lives. Her insights will be welcomed by scholars of anthropology and demography as well as by those working in public health, development studies, gerontology, and the history of medicine.
Related to Contingent Lives
Titles in the series (3)
Contingent Lives: Fertility, Time, and Aging in West Africa Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApprenticeship in Critical Ethnographic Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related ebooks
Reconceiving Infertility: Biblical Perspectives on Procreation and Childlessness Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Genetics: A Beginner's Guide Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Reproductive Disruptions: Gender, Technology, and Biopolitics in the New Millennium Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNavigating Miscarriage: Social, Medical and Conceptual Perspectives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKinship and Beyond: The Genealogical Model Reconsidered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEdenic Eve Versus Clonaid Eve: An Ethical Dimension of Human Cloning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Anthropology of the Fetus: Biology, Culture, and Society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsContested Reproduction: Genetic Technologies, Religion, and Public Debate Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender, Updated Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Childbirth, Midwifery and Concepts of Time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEvo-Devo of Child Growth: Treatise on Child Growth and Human Evolution Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNormed Children: Effects of Gender and Sex Related Normativity on Childhood and Adolescence Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Our Mother-Tempers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEuropean Kinship in the Age of Biotechnology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCloning: A Beginner's Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Online World of Surrogacy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMilitant Lactivism?: Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and France Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Nature of Diversity: An Evolutionary Voyage of Discovery Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsModern Babylon?: Prostituting Children in Thailand Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBreast or Bottle?: Contemporary Controversies in Infant-Feeding Policy and Practice Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHealing the Infertile Family: Strengthening Your Relationship in the Search for Parenthood Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infertility and the Creative Spirit Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRomancing the Sperm: Shifting Biopolitics and the Making of Modern Families Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGenetic Responsibility in Germany and Israel: Practices of Prenatal Diagnosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur Precarious Habitat ... It's In Your Hands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOuter Origin: A Discourse on Ectogenesis and the Value of Human Experience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRace Unmasked: Biology and Race in the Twentieth Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Stem Cell Epistles: Letters to My Students about Bioethics, Embryos, Stem Cells, and Fertility Treatments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAnglophone Expatriate Mothers Raising Biracial Children in Korea: A Pastoral Care Model Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Anthropology For You
A People's History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Immortality Key: The Secret History of the Religion with No Name Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo" Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bullshit Jobs: A Theory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories of Rootworkers & Hoodoo in the Mid-South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sapiens: A Graphic History, Volume 2: The Pillars of Civilization Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Matter of the Mind: The Culturally Articulated Unconscious Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bright-sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermined America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Witch: A History of Fear, from Ancient Times to the Present Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Folk Medicine in Southern Appalachia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Trouble With Testosterone: And Other Essays On The Biology Of The Human Predi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bruce Lee Wisdom for the Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future---Updated With a New Epilogue Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A History of the American People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rethinking Narcissism: The Bad---and Surprising Good---About Feeling Special Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Contingent Lives
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Contingent Lives - Caroline H. Bledsoe
Enjoying the preview?
Page 1 of 1