from Part Three - Resistances and Intersections
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 September 2023
Exploring key trajectories of feminist anthropologies of reproduction, this chapter demonstrates how issues surrounding procreation and its prevention have provided the terrain for major insights about cultural and political dynamics since the very beginning of anthropology itself. The notion of stratified reproduction proved pivotal for broadening the ethnographic gaze on reproductive practices to include global processes, inspiring feminist anthropologists to highlight the multiple forms of inequality and the multiplication of inequalities within and across borders. The author focuses on theoretical debates that have both influenced the feminist anthropologies of reproduction and, in turn, been impacted by it – questions of Foucauldian biopolitics. The author begins by outlining Foucault’s notion of biopower, and then explores some of the diverse ways that feminist anthropologists have related to concepts of biopolitics in theorizing the study of reproduction. The third section illuminates anthropologies of abortion that have variously pursued feminist politics, and/or the analytical concerns of biopolitics, at times bringing them together and at others considering them to be discrete agendas. Finally, the chapter explores feminist anthropologies of abortion in state socialist and postsocialist societies, arguing that these political-economic and social contexts offer important directions for understanding reproduction, the state, and biopolitics.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.