Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

by Robbie E. Davis-Floyd, Carolyn F. Sargent

This benchmark collection of cross-cultural essays on reproduction and childbirth extends and enriches the work of Brigitte Jordan, who helped generate and define the field of the anthropology of birth. The authors' focus on authoritative knowledge—the knowledge that counts, on the basis of which decisions are made and actions taken—highlights the vast differences between birthing systems that give authority of knowing to women and their communities and those that invest it in experts and machines.

Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge offers first-hand ethnographic research conducted by anthropologists in sixteen different societies and cultures and includes the interdisciplinary perspectives of a social psychologist, a sociologist, an epidemiologist, a staff member of the World Health Organization, and a community midwife. Exciting directions for further research as well as pressing needs for policy guidance emerge from these illuminating explorations of authoritative knowledge about birth. This book is certain to follow Jordan's Birth in Four Cultures as the definitive volume in a rapidly expanding field.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction

505 pages, Hardcover

First published July 28, 1997

Reviews

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

AMAZING book on the anthropology of birth, authoritative knowledge (aka: why do a few white, male, western doctors get to decide for women around the globe how they should give birth?) and birth practices aroound the world. The author is one of my heroes.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is very much an anthropological work and very powerful in what it has to say to us about birth and many other things. It avoids the 'look at all these quirky daft things primitive people do' approach because it is very much about authoritative knowledge and includes studies of so many different settings and ways to interrogate the issue - from the political economy of birth in Tuscany to birth in Eastern Europe and in war-torn Sierra Leone.

It was poignant to read chapters by two of my heroes, Sheila Kitzinger and Marsden Wagner, both of whom have died in recent years and who were such engaging down to earth people to meet in person.

I was particularly struck by the chapter on the POV community in Canada and the description of different forms of logic in decision making, all of which have their own validity, without giving anything to the airy-fairy. It explains something I have long thought about in much better language. The chaper on 'the idea of unassisted birth' was not at all what I was expecting (something Shanley inspired and Western) and very thought provoking in its careful unpicking of values, ideals and actual practice.

One is not left terribly uplifted - we see how many ways there are to give birth and how many of them involve violence against women.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Chapters on authoritative knowledge still ring true. Otters seem dated

[Nev]

I got this from the library thinking it was a full-length work by Robbie Davis-Floyd, and I wish it had been. Many of the chapters by various authors were interesting and informative and I particularly enjoyed those discussing childbirth in areas of the world where I previously knew nothing about it. However, the treatment of Authoritative Knowledge was generally weak, and I didn't feel like I knew much more about the concept, or had any more sophisticated an understanding of how it plays out, than I did after finishing Birth in Four Cultures by Jordan, which is where the idea originated.

[Deena Scintilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the anthropological and historical approach to childbirth issues.