ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Reproduction is a comprehensive overview of the topics, approaches, and trajectories in the anthropological study of human reproduction. The book brings together work from across the discipline of anthropology, with contributions by established and emerging scholars in archaeological, biological, linguistic, and sociocultural anthropology. Across these areas of research, consideration is given to the contexts, conditions, and contingencies that mark and shape the experiences of reproduction as always gendered, classed, and racialized. Over 39 chapters, a diverse range of international scholars cover topics including:

  • Reproductive governance, stratification, justice, and freedom.
  • Fertility and infertility.
  • Technologies and imaginations.
  • Queering reproduction.
  • Pregnancy, childbirth, and reproductive loss.
  • Postpartum and infant care.
  • Care, kinship, and alloparenting.

This is a valuable reference for scholars and upper-level students in anthropology and related disciplines associated with reproduction, including sociology, gender studies, science and technology studies, human development and family studies, global health, public health, medicine, medical humanities, and midwifery and nursing.

part I|68 pages

Opening conversations in reproduction

chapter 2|16 pages

Developmental origins of health and disease

Evidence, proposed mechanisms, and ideas for future applications

chapter 3|16 pages

Men and reproduction

Perspectives from biological anthropology

part II|96 pages

Governance, stratification, justice, and freedom

chapter 6|17 pages

The necropolitics of reproduction

Racism, resistance, and the Sojourner Syndrome in the age of the Movement for Black Lives

chapter 7|14 pages

Reproductive governance in practice

A comparison of state-provided reproductive healthcare in Cuba and the United States

chapter 8|13 pages

Reproduction through revolution

Maoist women's struggle for equity in post-development Nepal

chapter 9|15 pages

Policy, governance, practice

Global perspectives on abortion

chapter 10|16 pages

Sterile choices

Racialized women, reproductive freedom, and social justice

part III|106 pages

Making fertility

chapter 11|17 pages

Menstruation

Causes, consequences, and context

chapter 12|17 pages

Menstruation

Sociocultural perspectives

chapter 14|24 pages

Global IVF and local practices

The case of Ghana

chapter 15|14 pages

Eggs

chapter 16|16 pages

Surrogacy

part IV|34 pages

Queering reproduction

chapter 18|16 pages

Invisible hands

The reproductivities of queer(ing) and race(ing) gynecology

part V|60 pages

Made and unmade

chapter 22|16 pages

Reproduction in the past

A bioarchaeological exploration of the fetus and its significance

part VI|42 pages

Pregnancy

chapter 24|14 pages

Bringing language into the anthropology of reproduction

The text and talk of pregnancy

chapter 25|13 pages

From couvade to “men's involvement”

Sociocultural perspectives of expectant fatherhood

part VII|102 pages

Birth

chapter 29|12 pages

Doulas

Negotiating boundaries in birth

chapter 31|16 pages

Making dignified care the norm

Examining obstetric violence and reproductive justice in Kenya

chapter 32|15 pages

Maternal mortality

part IX|58 pages

Care as reproducing kinship

chapter 36|15 pages

Menopause

chapter 38|14 pages

Alloparenting

Evolutionary origins and contemporary significance of cooperative childrearing as a key feature of human reproduction

chapter 39|13 pages

Adoption and fostering