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"Conceiving Persons" is an international exploration of the symbolism of reproduction. The emphasis is on the core metaphors and practices of human sexual and social reproduction in their personal, societal, and cosmological contexts. The roles of a range of substances-blood, semen, milk, and food-and their specific parts in the creation of the character of fetus and infant are assessed. Particular attention is paid to the construction of gender and its implications. Case studies are drawn from European peasant societies and from communities in Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.
List of contents
1 Introduction 2 No substance, no kinship? Procreation, performativity and Temanambondro parent-child relations 3 Procreation theories and their implications: overcoming the absent father in southern Tanzania 4 Making persons, marking differences: procreation beliefs in highland Bolivia 5 Every infant is born with its 'younger sibling': childbirth and care among Amurang fishermen 6 Women, work and procreation beliefs in two Muslim communities 7 Procreation in Islam: a reading from Egypt of people and texts 8 The light of life: representations of procreation, divinity and property in Carnia and Anatolia 9 The essence of being: procreation and sexuality in mid-century Macedonia 10 Procreation metaphors in rural Greece: cultivating, bread-making, weaving 11 Procreation, patriarchy and medical science: the resistance to recognizing maternal contributions in European embryological though.
About the author
Peter Loizos is professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics.Patrick Heady recieved his doctorate in Antropology from the London School of Economics and works at the Office for national Statistics
Summary
This volume provides an international analysis of the core metaphors and practices of human sexual and social reproduction in their personal, social and cosmological contexts.
