Lecture 23 - University of Southern California



Dr. Erin Moore Department of Anthropology

Fall 2015, Classroom: GFS 105, Tues. and Thurs. 9:30-10:50

Office: KAP 340, Tu. and Thurs. before or after class, e-mail for an appointment: epm@usc.edu

Anthropology 305, section 10621R, 001 (8/23/15)

Childhood, Birth and Reproduction

(no prerequisites)

Anthropology is the study of what it means to be human across time and species. Although people in all cultures give birth -- how a people envision the role of motherhood and childhood shapes a political discourse on women and women' rights, needs and desires. The politics of reproduction is about who gets to shape our sense of ourselves as reproductive beings – male or female. In this cultural anthropology course students are introduced to a cross-cultural examination of reproduction, birth, and child rearing. The central paradigm that unites all three parts of the title is motherhood. We begin our course with the “mother instinct” from a biological perspective.

Motherhood: What are the stereotypes about motherhood and how is motherhood seen when we look at a range of mothers across species. What do we mean by maternal instinct? What does human evolution teach us about mothering and fathering?

Birth: Birth is both biological and cultural. As cultures change and “modernize,” the birth process also evolves within the constraints of law, medicine, gendered relations and developmental discourse. Who owns the birth process? Whose knowledge is important? Does the woman give birth alone, with other women, with her spouse, a mid-wife, or a professional team? Who gets to decide the type of birth, whose space, and what technologies? Is the pregnant woman empowered or is she seen as the patient (and expected to be passive)?

Childrearing, too, intertwines notions about biology, gender, culture and history. The idea of "common sense" is really a local ideal/ moral. As with childbirth, every culture thinks that their model is the best. Local religions and philosophies about the human journey color the early rituals that welcome newborns into the world. Babies can be seen as venerated ancestors, the reincarnated divine or as filled with a sin that must be strictly disciplined away. Do you rear a child to be an autonomous individual or dependent on the kin network?

I have chosen material from a wide variety of cultures including India, China, New Guinea, native North America, Europe, Indonesia, and California. We will have a doula (birth coach) and a surrogate mother as guests in our class. There are extra credit field trips to the Huntington Hospital maternity ward and alternative birthing centers in the area that we will discuss later in the course.

Student Learning Goals:

1. Students will see the application of anthropological concepts, theory and methodology to their own lives.

2. “We all see with our own eyes.” This is our constant refrain in the classroom. Students will learn that our cultures provide only one perspective on the right way to give birth or rear offspring. Through discussion in class, films, the research project and our texts, students will be introduced to a wide variety of perspectives and appreciate the differences in family structure across time, space, and culture.

3. Students will practice their critical thinking, reading and writing skills through the daily responses due to the professor. They will continue this practice through analyzing their research in the context of the classroom materials in the final paper.

4. Students will practice ethnographic research either within their own family or in a local community.

5. Students will practice their oral communication skills through presenting their research to the class in a formal Power Point presentation.

Texts: Bring the books to class that we are currently reading.

If it is before the semester begins, books can be bought on or in the bookstore. After we begin, do not buy Mother Nature on Amazon – we use it tonight. Buy all the books now so that you have them when we get there.

Books are also on a 3 hour reserve at Leavey library.

Reserve: There are additional readings on reserve. See Ares reserve for electronic resources. Learn the system ahead of time. Link is: (advance)

1. DeLoache, Judy and Alma Gottlieb, 2000 A World of Babies: Imagined Childcare Guide for Seven Societies, Cambridge University Press, ISBN: 0-521 66475 6

2. Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer, Mother Nature, 2000 , The Ballantine Publishing Co., ISBN 0-345-40893-4 (paperback)

3. Jordan, Brigitte, Birth in Four Cultures, 1993, Waveland Press ISBN 0-88133-717-X

4. Van Hollen, Ceilia, Birth on the Threshold, Childbirth and Modernity in South India, 2003, University of Ca. Press ISBN 10-0-520-22359-4

FYI: Childbirth across Cultures, is an ebook (if you are interested only), there are other items on the Ares Reserve just for fun as well.

Course Requirements:

Participation 10%

Written Responses 10%

4 QUIZZES 20%, 5 % ea.

Class paper and Power Point presentation 20%

2 Exams, 20% each, the exams are not cumulative and grades are not curved.

1. Class Participation (10%)

1. Participation in class: In dialog (active attendance is required),

This is a book group. I want to read and discuss the materials with you. The class will be held as part lecture and part seminar format.

Be prepared to read to me a part of any of the texts that you enjoyed or questioned.

Please be on time. There is no food, drink or chewing gum in the class. Please turn off your phone and stow it in your bag before each class. If I suspect you are surfing the web on your computer, I will ask you to use pen and paper from then on. We sit in a circle; surfing is distracting to your neighbor, yourself, and me.

2. Written reflections sent by computer to the professor, 10%

All students must write a one-page response to a reading assigned for EACH class. Give your response to all the readings: relate to other classes, what you like or did not like, how does this relate to your life, etc. approx.. 300 words, double-spaced.

NOTE: E-mail to me, epm@usc.edu, WRITE 305 in the subject line.

Send by midnight the night before the class. Late responses are not accepted. (I read them before class).

Paste it into the e-mail, no attachments. You may e-mail your timely response to me even if you are not in class. This homework is not graded but will be recorded as either adequate or not. I will communicate to you by email if your responses are not adequate.

3. 2 Exams (20% each) This will be a combination of short answers and essays. Bring a large blue book to be given to another.

How do I study? Review the slides on blackboard, your notes on class and films. Then study group with the other students. If you need to make up the final for an officially recognized reason, the exam will be different and may be all essay.

The goal of the exam: is to test not only your knowledge of the cultures (compare and contrast) that we studied and where they are located geographically (map) but also your ability to apply anthropological concepts to new situations.

4. Paper (20%) You will complete one independent research project during the semester, to be planned and carried out in coordination with me. This project and paper will be due at the end of the semester. Interview at least 3 people.

Examples: Interview (for example) your cousin, mother and grandmother -- or at least three different generations of women on their birthing experiences. How are they similar and different to each other? How are they similar and different to the stories that we read in the books provided?

or Propose another project with some fieldwork component on cross-cultural ideas about child rearing, birth rituals, rites of passage for children, lactation consultants, birth centers, Nestle boycott in the U.S. (baby friendly hospitals), childcare centers, observe parenting styles in a park, interview surrogates, midwives, medical doctors.

There are interview questions in the Van Hollen book Appendix 1 pg. 221, and in DeLoache, and Gottlieb introductory materials. Interview your neighbors, your roommate’s family…. Go for something cross-cultural.

I have a list of other topics.

The paper: The goal of this paper is to compare stories from your family, friends, or others to the materials that we read in class. What the texts are saying will resonate with your own lives.

10 pages, I will stop reading after 10 pages (editing is an art), number pages:

1. Begin the paper with a quote from an informant. Then tell me what the paper is about.

Intro/thesis and Methods (NOT MORE THAN ONE PAGE).

2. Data and relate research to class materials (this should be intertwined), cite with page numbers ie. (Jordon 87). You should cite a variety of materials throughout the course, a few each page. Explain the connections, some with quotes.

3. Conclusion, what did you learn overall from these interviews.

4. Appendix: include the questions that you asked AND the notes that you took.

5. Submit it with , under blackboard assignments, (click) view/complete to upload. Give me a hard copy.

Outlines: Only for those not an A student to date. Include who you are interviewing, how you see our class materials relating to your own research (with page no.), 2 page outline.

Power Point presentations (5%): About 6 slides, 6 minutes. This material will be included on the last exam.

Discuss: Who you interviewed and why,

what was particularly interesting to you (just explain one of your interviews),

relate this to our classroom discussions and readings.

Have photographs and other visuals. INCLUDE a picture of yourself with informants.

Topic due: 11/5, Hard copy in class at start of class.

Outline due: 11/17, for some students.

Paper due: 12/1

Students who get special accommodations, please advise me during the first week of school.

Special help: USC has a variety of options if you need special help. If you need special help for this class or any other, pls. see the Center for Academic Support () and the Writing Center () or the Counseling Office at the Student Health Center ().

Come talk to me in my office as well.

Week 1 Introducing The Field

8/25 Organizational meeting, Introductions

What is motherhood?

Remember, your first response is due tomorrow night, 8/26

8/27 1. History and Evolution in the Eye of the Primatologist: Biological Underpinning, Motherhood and Babies (Human and Non-Human Primates)

A Biological Introduction: Evolutionary Models

Hrdy (pronounced HURDY) Read Ch. 1 p. 3-15, (This one reading is on Ares). Ch. 2 p. 27-54 (the book is on reserve at Levy library if your book has not come).

(Think of the human female as part of a long evolutionary process from other species.

What are the stereotypes of human females, what is motherhood, and how is motherhood seen when we look at the range of mothering across species? )

Goodall Film clip

1 min. reflection in class at end of lecture? What was unclear, what did you learn.

9/1 Nursing

Hrdy pgs. 121-141 top (This is not the entire chapter).

Hrdy pgs. 146-169 mother instinct, “The Milky Way:” Why do only females produce milk? What do we mean by the instinct to mother? nature and nurture.

9/3 Human mothers don't necessarily attach and men invest based on outcomes.

Birth control? Lactation Suppression

Hrdy, Family planning, Primate Style pgs. 175-199

Hrdy, pgs. 205-219, Why fathers don't choose to help out more?

Check out this youtube, Hadza hunting (woman the hunter):

9/8 Hrdy: Ch. 10 pg. 235-265, polyandry vs. polygyny, in patriarchy

(we will continue 9/3 discussion as well)

QUIZ 1

In class: Yanomamo film clip, “Warriors of the Amazon”

In class: Kung San Clip, “Nai”

9/10 HRDY

Hrdy: Unnatural Mothers pg. 288- 317,

Ares electronic reserve: Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, Ch. 40 Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology, "Culture, Scarcity, and Maternal Thinking: Maternal Detachment and Infant Survival in a Brazilian Shanty Town" by Scheper-Hughes pg. 375-385,

9/15 Daughters or Sons? Guest lecture, Craig Stanford

Hrdy 318-350 Sex ratio: Is there a biological basis for preferring sons, in animals or humans? Those at the top of the chain want sons, at the bottom, want daughters.

Is there resource competition or mate competition?

Film: Part of “Small Happiness” and Female Selective Abortion and Infanticide video

Modernization/ Urbanization and the family

9/17 Ares Reserve: Fetal/FatalKnowledge: New reproductive technologies and Family-Building Strategies in India, Khanna, Sunil K., pgs. 88-104, 108-125 .

Note: Jat refers to the Hindu caste of farmers in this North Indian state of Haryana.

In class: Indian dowry clip

9/22 Infanticide, Wet Nurses, and Birth spacing: Old Trade-offs, New Contexts

Hrdy: 351-380

Nestle Milk controversies

Ares reserve: The Politics of Breastfeeding, Ch. 1 Why Breastfeeding is Political, "Why Breastfeeding is Political" (Note: page 4-5 have photos I did not copy)

In class: DVD: “Into the Mouths of Babes, ”1977 boycott, pshannon@

9/24 Ares Reserve: Milk, Money and Madness, Ch. 5 The Global Search for Formula Sales,

Exam Review: Bring your questions.

9/29 First Exam, bring a large blue book, the exam will take up the class session. There will be no extra time, but you may begin as soon as the previous class is finished. Come early.

II. BIRTHING in Four Cultures

Yucatan/ Holland, Sweden, U.S.:

10/1 Jordan Chapters 1 and 2, pgs. 3-44, Ch. 4 a part. pgs. 91-100 (Theory of studying birth, birth in village Yucatan, Mexico, participant observation by author)

10/6 Discussions of Yucatan birth in contrast to the U.S.

Ricki Lake, "The Business of Being Born" in class today.

Homework: watch the embedded video and write a response:

Read and see:

See also: ​

10/8 Jordan Ch. 3, 45-75 (Birthing in U.S., Holland, and Sweden), read carefully

Class: Glyol film clip on drugged and not drugged babies.

10/13 Finish Jordan Ch. 5, 76-90, 121-146.

India: Midwifery, Rituals around birthing, Forced Birth Control

10/15 Beginning: Birth on the Threshold (Colonial India, dai (midwife), purdah and caste), Van Hollen, 1-4, 26-28 top (italics only parts), pgs. 36-56.

QUIZ 2

10/20 “The Reproductive Continuum” Puberty Rituals, Dowry, Girls as Auspicious Burdens, etc., Van Hollin cont. pg. 76-111

10/22 Guest Doula to speak, Glyol Pannbechi

Ares Reserve: Readings from Birthing from Within (1998), “The Pain and the Power of Birth,” pgs. 190-193, 199-221.

10/27 Bring on the Pain: Vali (pain and strength, Sakti), Birth control targets, IUDs

Van Hollin cont.112-159

IV Birth Planning/ Technology

10/29 China's One Child Policy:

Ares Reserve: The New England Journal of Medicine, “The Effect of China's One-Child Family Policy after 25 Years”

AND The China Journal, “Who adopts girls and Why? Domestic Adoption of Female Children in Contemporary Rural China,” Zhang, Weiguo, 2006

In Class: Segment in Small Happiness film: 18:00

11/3 Surrogacy: New Concepts of the Family

Ares Reserve: Kinship and Gender, “Kinship, Gender, and the New Reproductive Technologies: The Beginning of the End?” Stone pg. 277-299

Ares Reserve: Infertility around the Globe, "The Local Confronts the Global: Infertile Bodies and the New Reproductive Technologies in Egypt." Marcia Inhorn

Film clips: "The Baby the Stork Brought Home" or “Made in India”

Paper Topic due today: review the whole syllabus as you consider your topic.

Quiz 3

11/5 Guest Speaker: Surrogate Mother Heather Barnhart (Paper topic due today, hard copy in class)

After the talk, write me your response to the issues of surrogacy, cite things that Heather discussed. This is due by midnight today.

11/ 10 Van Hollin cont. pg. 166-205, Development as the new civilizing mission. Hot and Cold, New concepts of the body, postpartum diet, bathing.

V. Raising Babies/ Child rearing

11/12 A World of Babies Ch. 2, 29-54 (Puritans)

11/17 A World of Babies (Paper outline due today)

Ch. 3 55-91 (Beng of West Africa),

In class: Beng film clips on the internet,

Sign up for the presentations.

11/19  Quiz 4: A World of Babies, Bali and Walpiri (Australia)

11/24   Ares Reserve: Amy Chua (Tiger Mom)  Amy Chua, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,  “NoMoreSleepovers AND FYI:

See also: Blackboard Post: Loomans, “If I Could Raise Again.

Exam Review

Happy Thanksgiving 11/26

12/1 Power Point presentations of projects.

12/3 Power Point presentations, Course evaluations.

12/10 11-1 pm Second Midterm, bring a blue book

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More Support Systems

A number of USC’s schools provide support for students who need help with scholarly writing. Check with your advisor or program staff to find out more. Students whose primary language is not English should check with the American Language Institute , which sponsors courses and workshops specifically for international graduate students. The Office of Disability Services and Programs certification for students with disabilities and helps arrange the relevant accommodations. If an officially declared emergency makes travel to campus infeasible, USC Emergency Information provide safety and other updates, including ways in which instruction will be continued by means of blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technology.

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