World Breastfeeding Week is held yearly from 1st to 7th of August in more than 120 countries. Being organized by WABA, WHO and UNICEF, the goal is to promote exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life which yields tremendous health benefits, providing critical nutrients, protection from deadly diseases and fostering growth. To learn more please visit www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org
Berghahn is pleased to highlight our Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality Series, as well as selection of other relevant titles and journal articles.
THE DANCE OF NURTURE
Negotiating Infant Feeding
Penny Van Esterik and Richard A. O’Connor
Volume 6, Food, Nutrition, and Culture
The Dance of Nurture integrates ethnography, biology and the political economy of infant feeding into a holistic framework guided by the metaphor of dance. It includes a critique of efforts to improve infant feeding practices globally by UN agencies and advocacy groups concerned with solving global nutrition and health problems.
Read Introduction
Fertility, Reproduction and Sexuality Series
Understanding the complex and multifaceted issue of human reproduction has been, and remains, of great interest both to academics and practitioners. This series includes studies by specialists in the field of social, cultural, medical, and biological anthropology, medical demography, psychology, and development studies.
Volume 26
NIGHTTIME BREASTFEEDING
An American Cultural Dilemma
Cecília Tomori
“In this beautifully written ethnography… Cecılia Tomori provides a broad‐ranging yet in‐depth discussion of numerous anthropological topics, including kinship, reproduction, and personhood… This book is a pleasure to read, and will be of interest not only to scholars of gender, kinship, and reproduction, but also to those who work on the subjects of embodiment, authoritative knowledge, expertise, morality, the house, and temporality. It deserves to be read widely, both within the academy and beyond.” ∙ Journal of Royal Anthropological Institute
Read Introduction
Volume 25
PREGNANCY IN PRACTICE
Expectation and Experience in the Contemporary US
Sallie Han
“Pregnancy in Practice is a feminist contribution to the anthropology of reproduction in that it explores the quotidian experiences of pregnant women…While her sample is by no means statistically representative of the experiences of American women, the women in her ethnography represent the normative prenatal experience in America. Han successfully demonstrates that the concept of an ‘ordinary’ or ‘norma’ pregnancy is a phantom itself. Because of this work, perhaps we can definitively say that all women have ordinary pregnancies, or perhaps none do.” · Association for Feminist Anthropology Review
Read Chapter 1. Introduction: Ordinary Pregnancy
Volume 24
SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2014 BSA PHILIP ABRAMS MEMORIAL PRIZE
MILITANT LACTIVISM?
Attachment Parenting and Intensive Motherhood in the UK and France
Charlotte Faircloth
“This is an attentive ethnography of women in London and Paris who are members of the international breastfeeding support organisation La Leche League (LLL)… The book is written in a clear and engaging way and can be recommended to students and scholars interested in kinship and family studies, as well as for those looking for a good anthropological study on contemporary motherhood.” · Social Anthropology/Anthropologie sociale
Read Introduction
Volume 5
BREAST FEEDING AND SEXUALITY
Behaviour, Beliefs and Taboos among the Gogo Mothers in Tanzania
Mara Mabilia
Translated from the Italian by Mary S. Ash
“This volume is exemplary in the field of anthropological research…The writing style is clear and reflective…I recommend Breastfeeding and Sexuality for those interested in Tanzanian maternal–child health practices, cross-cultural studies, anthropological research methods, breast-feeding and women’s experiences.” · Journal of Biosocial Science
Read Introduction
other titles in the Series:
For a full list of titles please visit Series webpage.
Featured Article from Berghahn Journals:
Breastfeeding Practices among Pastoral Tribes in the Middle East: A Cross-Cultural Study
Anthropology of the Middle East, Volume 2, Number 2
Open Access!
The main purpose of this article is to describe traditional breastfeeding practices among the pastoral tribes in the Middle East. It also examines beliefs and attitudes towards breastfeeding and related issues, including pregnancy, infections of the breast nipple, sources of milk, ‘bad milk’ syndrome and breastfeeding as a contraceptive method. The most significant findings are that mothers relate breastfeeding to their physical and psychological state.
The Guilty Brelfie: Censored Breastfeeding Selfies Reclaim Public Space
Screen Bodies, Volume 4, Issue 1
Breastfeeding mothers and their babies are simultaneously in the public sphere and hidden from public view. Although social media has the potential to normalize attitudes toward breastfeeding by increasing visibility, Facebook and Instagram maintain an unpredictable censorship policy toward “brelfies”—female breast selfies—which has undermined progress. By deconstructing controversial case studies, this article concludes that brelfies have increased breastfeeding’s accessibility and acceptability in the material world.
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