Being Pregnant in a Rural South Indian Village: Bodily Experiences and Socio-Cultural Constructs of Pregnancy
Summary
Pregnancy never solely is a physiological or biological
process. Anthropologists have pointed out that
pregnancy and birth are socially constructed and reside in
a socio-cultural context that forms the basis for the
meaning that can be ascribed to these processes. With
this thesis, it has been my aim to find out whether and
how bodily and emotional experiences of women are
connected to socio-cultural constructions of both
pregnancy and motherhood. Zooming in to these sociocultural
constructions, I have attempted to explore
wheter become a mother can, on the one hand, be
interpreted as a journey towards adulthood/womanhood,
and on the other hand, I have tried to investigate
whether pregnancy and mother are to be seen as clear
vital conjunctures in the individual and social lives of
women living in a small scale rural village in South India.
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