MESA Banner
(Re)configuring the Natural: Ethics, Politics, and Religion in the Demedicalization of Childbirth in Turkey
Abstract
This project analyzes the new social, economical and technological configurations for creating the desire for a “natural” childbirth among families in Turkey. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic research conducted in Istanbul, I trace how the transnational global birth conferences along with the popular “pregnancy- schools” are becoming platforms to criticize existing biomedical hegemonies while building an alternative system of care. The scholarship on reproduction typically focuses on the biopolitics of the state, whereby state intervention in reproductive healthcare is meant to make modern citizen-subjects (Boddy 2007, van Hollen 2003, Kanaaneh 2002) and demedicalization processes are considered as a form of feminist resistance to undo these state interventions (Davis Floyd 2006, Adler and Adler 2007, Conrad 1992). However, my interlocutors are drawing on multiple sources that are including but not limited to the feminist discourses such as islamic, spiritual and somatic narratives. Thus, this paper aims to move beyond the feminist vs. anti-feminist dichotomies in examining the practices of natural birthers in Turkey.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
Gender/Women's Studies