Edited by Marcia C. Inhorn and Frank van Balen
Infertility around the Globe
New Thinking on Childlessness, Gender, and Reproductive Technologies
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9780520927810
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This exceptional collection of essays breaks new ground by examining the global impact of infertility as a major reproductive health issue, one that has profoundly affected the lives of countless women and men. Based on original research by seventeen internationally acclaimed social scientists, it is the first book to investigate the use of reproductive technologies in non-Western countries. Provocative and incisive, it is the most substantial work to date on the subject of infertility.
With infertility as the lens through which a wide range of social issues is explored, the contributors address a far-reaching array of topics: why infertility has been neglected in population studies, how the deeply gendered nature of infertility sets the blame squarely on women's shoulders, how infertility and its treatment transform family dynamics and relationships, and the distribution of medical and marital power. The chapters present informed and sophisticated investigations into cultural perceptions of infertility in numerous countries, including China, India, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Egypt, Israel, the United States, and the nations of Europe.
Poised to become the quintessential reference on infertility from an international social science perspective, Infertility around the Globe makes a powerful argument that involuntary childlessness is a complex phenomenon that has far-reaching significance worldwide.
With infertility as the lens through which a wide range of social issues is explored, the contributors address a far-reaching array of topics: why infertility has been neglected in population studies, how the deeply gendered nature of infertility sets the blame squarely on women's shoulders, how infertility and its treatment transform family dynamics and relationships, and the distribution of medical and marital power. The chapters present informed and sophisticated investigations into cultural perceptions of infertility in numerous countries, including China, India, the nations of sub-Saharan Africa, Vietnam, Costa Rica, Egypt, Israel, the United States, and the nations of Europe.
Poised to become the quintessential reference on infertility from an international social science perspective, Infertility around the Globe makes a powerful argument that involuntary childlessness is a complex phenomenon that has far-reaching significance worldwide.
"Extremely well-written, innovative, and timely, Infertility Around the Globe is a definitive work. Together, the authors use infertility as the lens to examine numerous compelling social issues, generating a powerful argument that infertility is a globally significant phenomenon. This volume will attract anthropologists and other social scientists interested in the study of reproduction, as well as anyone interested in gender studies, women's studies, and international health."—Carolyn Sargent, co-editor of Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
"This groundbreaking, interdisciplinary book will change how infertility is theorized and how intervention programs are designed. It will become the primary sourcebook for international and comparative research in a variety of cultural settings. Reading this book was a distinct pleasure."—Lynn Morgan, co-editor of Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions
"A stunning achievement. Through its richly textured ethnographic accounts, this book beautifully explicates the universals and particularities of involuntary childlessness in disparate world regions. It challenges the myopic view that the heartbreak is limited to advanced industrial societies. This book is a much-needed antidote in a field mostly characterized by polemic and untested assumptions."—C. H. Browner, UCLA School of Medicine
"Scholarship on infertility too often has been culture-bound, focusing on Western versions of biosocial reproductive problems and on technological solutions. This innovative volume decenters that perspective, with studies on the ostracism of elder childless men in Kenya, political suspicions of vaccination campaigns in the Cameroons, new reproductive technologies for ultraorthodox use in Israel, and China's emergent eugenics. It enlarges the 'public' in public health."—Rayna Rapp, co-editor of Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
"This groundbreaking, interdisciplinary book will change how infertility is theorized and how intervention programs are designed. It will become the primary sourcebook for international and comparative research in a variety of cultural settings. Reading this book was a distinct pleasure."—Lynn Morgan, co-editor of Fetal Subjects, Feminist Positions
"A stunning achievement. Through its richly textured ethnographic accounts, this book beautifully explicates the universals and particularities of involuntary childlessness in disparate world regions. It challenges the myopic view that the heartbreak is limited to advanced industrial societies. This book is a much-needed antidote in a field mostly characterized by polemic and untested assumptions."—C. H. Browner, UCLA School of Medicine
"Scholarship on infertility too often has been culture-bound, focusing on Western versions of biosocial reproductive problems and on technological solutions. This innovative volume decenters that perspective, with studies on the ostracism of elder childless men in Kenya, political suspicions of vaccination campaigns in the Cameroons, new reproductive technologies for ultraorthodox use in Israel, and China's emergent eugenics. It enlarges the 'public' in public health."—Rayna Rapp, co-editor of Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
Part I. Discourses and Debates
1. Introduction. Interpreting Infertility: A View from the Social Sciences
Frank van Balen and Marcia C. Inhorn
2. The Uses of a "Disease": Infertility as Rhetorical Vehicle
Margarete Sandelowski and Sheryl de Lacey
3. Fertile Ground: Feminists Theorize Infertility
Charis M. Thompson
4. The Psychologization of Infertility
Frank van Balen
Part II. Gender and Body Politics
5. Infertile Bodies: Medicalization, Metaphor, and Agency
Arthur L. Greil
6. Deciding Whether to Tell Children about Donor Insemination: An Unresolved Question in the United States
Gay Becker
7. Conceiving the Happy Family: Infertility and Marital Politics in Northern Vietnam
Melissa J. Pashigian
8. Positioning Gender Identity in Narratives of Infertility: South Indian Women’s Lives in Context
Catherine Kohler Riessman
9. Childlessness, Adoption, and Milagros de Dios in Costa Rica
Gwynne L. Jenkins with Silvia Vargas Obando and José Badilla Navas
Part III. The Infertility Belt
10. Problematizing Fertility: "Scientific" Accounts and Chadian Women’s Narratives
Lori Leonard
11. Is Infertility an Unrecognized Public Health and Population Problem? The View from the Cameroon Grassfields
Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
12. Infertility and Matrilineality: The Exceptional Case of the Macua of Mozambique
Trudie Gerrits
13. Infertility and Health Care in Countries with Less Resources: Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa
Johanne Sundby
Part IV. Globalizing Technologies
14. The "Local" Confronts the "Global": Infertile Bodies and New Reproductive Technologies in Egypt
Marcia C. Inhorn
15. Rabbis and Reproduction: The Uses of New Reproductive Technologies
among Ultraorthodox Jews in Israel
Susan Martha Kahn
16. The Politics of Making Modern Babies in China: Reproductive Technologies and the "New" Eugenics
Lisa Handwerker
17. Conception Politics: Medical Egos, Media Spotlights, and the Contest over Test-Tube Firsts in India
Aditya Bharadwaj
Contributors
Index
1. Introduction. Interpreting Infertility: A View from the Social Sciences
Frank van Balen and Marcia C. Inhorn
2. The Uses of a "Disease": Infertility as Rhetorical Vehicle
Margarete Sandelowski and Sheryl de Lacey
3. Fertile Ground: Feminists Theorize Infertility
Charis M. Thompson
4. The Psychologization of Infertility
Frank van Balen
Part II. Gender and Body Politics
5. Infertile Bodies: Medicalization, Metaphor, and Agency
Arthur L. Greil
6. Deciding Whether to Tell Children about Donor Insemination: An Unresolved Question in the United States
Gay Becker
7. Conceiving the Happy Family: Infertility and Marital Politics in Northern Vietnam
Melissa J. Pashigian
8. Positioning Gender Identity in Narratives of Infertility: South Indian Women’s Lives in Context
Catherine Kohler Riessman
9. Childlessness, Adoption, and Milagros de Dios in Costa Rica
Gwynne L. Jenkins with Silvia Vargas Obando and José Badilla Navas
Part III. The Infertility Belt
10. Problematizing Fertility: "Scientific" Accounts and Chadian Women’s Narratives
Lori Leonard
11. Is Infertility an Unrecognized Public Health and Population Problem? The View from the Cameroon Grassfields
Pamela Feldman-Savelsberg
12. Infertility and Matrilineality: The Exceptional Case of the Macua of Mozambique
Trudie Gerrits
13. Infertility and Health Care in Countries with Less Resources: Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa
Johanne Sundby
Part IV. Globalizing Technologies
14. The "Local" Confronts the "Global": Infertile Bodies and New Reproductive Technologies in Egypt
Marcia C. Inhorn
15. Rabbis and Reproduction: The Uses of New Reproductive Technologies
among Ultraorthodox Jews in Israel
Susan Martha Kahn
16. The Politics of Making Modern Babies in China: Reproductive Technologies and the "New" Eugenics
Lisa Handwerker
17. Conception Politics: Medical Egos, Media Spotlights, and the Contest over Test-Tube Firsts in India
Aditya Bharadwaj
Contributors
Index
