Birth in four cultures

Description:

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: Folklore,  Birth customs,  Social aspects,  Cross-cultural studies,  Obstetrics,  Social aspects of Obstetrics,  Childbirth,  Netherlands, social life and customs,  Sweden, social life and customs,  United states, social life and customs,  Yucatan peninsula,  Cross-Cultural Comparison,  Parturition,  Midwifery,  Religious aspects,  Sociology,  Obstetric Labor