Visions of Black Futurity Amidst the Double Pandemic of COVID-19 and Police Brutality by Nadia Mbonde
When I ask Willow, an Afro-Puerto Rican young woman in her 20s, if quarantine has helped reduce the stigma of mental illness, …
The Limits of Warmth: Cultural Adaptation and the Politics of Temperature in a Bolivian Hospital by Gabriela Elisa Morales
In the small municipal hospital in the Bolivian highland town of Machacamarca (a pseudonym), the chilly air of the Andes seeps into …
Head circumference by Emily Yates-Doerr
For Spanish click here. In the early months of 2016, as global media sources incited fear among pregnant women that Zika would …
The Social Life of Metrics by Rosario García-Meza
For English click here La vida social de las métricas Guatemala es uno de los países de Centroamérica que ha reportado en …
Birth as Ritual/Ritual as Birth
Cultural anthropologist, Robbie Davis-Floyd, is considered by many as the Queen of Childbirth Studies. A Senior Research Fellow in the Department …
Funny, Awkward, Tender, Focused: Drawing Bodies by Andrea Ford
Drawings from my research on childbirth in California created an opportunity for sharing reflections on fieldwork and “seeing.” Birth is a highly …
Risk and utility in the governance of diagnostic testing: the case of genetic screening, 1960 to the present by Steve Sturdy
Routine collection of blood samples from neonates – often using so-called Guthrie cards (pictured) – began in the 1960s when a number …
Texting Like A State: mHealth and the first thousand days in South Africa by Nanna Schneidermann
What does making a new life look like from the perspective of a mobile phone? For the phone of a woman using …
‘On paper’ and ‘having papers’: migrants navigating medical xenophobia and obstetric rights in South Africa by Tamuka Chekero
Chekero met Pauline at a local pharmacy in Giyani, a small town in the north-east of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. …
What a Brown Recluse Spider Has Taught Me
After having recently received a venomous bite by a brown recluse spider in NYC, I’ve spent some time researching my arachnid attacker and …
‘A bit of a compromise’: Coming to terms with an emergency caesarean section by Terena Koster
During the midwife-hosted antenatal class Cath attended in a private hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, where she would eventually give birth, …
And Our Winners Are . . .
Many thanks to the 1,152 people who entered our publisher’s Amazon Giveaway to receive free copies of A World of Babies, and …
Enter to Win a Free Copy of “A World of Babies”–Deadline, Jan. 12, 2017!
Win a free copy of “A World of Babies”! To celebrate the official publication of the book, which is January 2017, our …
Infant Topography: Baby Body Mapping in Maphisa, Zimbabwe by Min’enhle Ncube
Nomsa, her sixteen month old son Nathi and I met early one morning at the entrance to the open cast mine in …
Everyday violence, mobility and access to antenatal care by Nicole Ferreira
I met Libby on a cold winter morning at the clinic. She was a short woman with a strong voice and slow …
1000 Risks and Birth-and-Death in Cape Town by Kathleen McDougall
“I was willing to die,” Terri told me, “I just didn’t want to have another caesarian.” She referred to her vaginal birth …
Taking up Space
Nine years ago when I started my doctoral studies not only was I in a fertile intellectual endeavour undertaking fieldwork, reading …
→The Anxious Anthropologist: culture, health and everyday life
Critical interventions in birth in the first 1000 days by Jennifer Rogerson
Choice and the assigning of value in the practices and crafting of life-giving work In healthy birthing initiatives described by, among others, …
Introduction: The First Thousand Days of Life by Michelle Pentecost
(On behalf of the First Thousand Days Research Group (University of Cape Town)) “Good nutrition in the first 1000 days between a …
Top of the Heap: Elly Teman by Hannah Gibson
For this installment of the Top of the Heap series, I spoke with Elly Teman, a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology …
The “Ow” of Pain
New research claims that saying “Ow” really can ease the pain. Why am I skeptical? Or, rather, why am I skeptical that …