Ethnographies of Breastfeeding Cultural Contexts and Confrontations

Breastfeeding is an intimate and deeply rooted bodily practice, as well as a highly controversial sociocultural process which invokes strong reactions from advocates and opponents. Touching on a wide range of issues such as reproduction, sexuality, power and resources, and maternal and infant health, the controversies and cultural complexities underlying breastfeeding are immense.

Ethnographies of Breastfeeding features the latest research on the topic. Some of the leading scholars in the field explore variations in breastfeeding practices from around the world. Based on empirical work in areas such as Brazil, West Africa, Darfur, Ireland, Italy, France, the UK and the US, they examine the cross-cultural challenges facing mothers feeding their infants.

Reframing the traditional nature/culture debate, the book moves beyond existing approaches to consider themes such as surrogacy, the risk of milk banks, mother-to-mother sharing networks facilitated by social media, and the increasing bio-medicalization of breast milk, which is leading its transformation from process to product.

A highly important contribution to global debates on breast milk and breastfeeding.

Tanya Cassidy is a research fellow at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland and is adjunct professor with the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Criminology at the University of Windsor in Canada.

Abdullahi El Tom is Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (NUIM), Ireland and was elected to the executive board of the European Association of Social Anthropologists in 2010.

Notes on Contributors

Foreword
Penny Van Esterik, York University, Canada

Introduction
Tanya Cassidy and Abdullahi El Tom, both of National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland

1. The Embodied Experience of Breastfeeding and the Product/Process Dichotomy in São Paolo, Brazil
Alanna E. F. Rudzik, Durham University, UK
2. Demedicalizing Breast Milk: The Discourses, Practices and Identities of Informal Milk Sharing
Aunchalee Palmquist, Elon University, USA
3. Historical Ethnography and the Meanings of Human Milk in Ireland
Tanya Cassidy, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
4. Between 'le corps maternel et le corps érotique': Exploring Women's Experiences of Breastfeeding and Expressing in the UK and France
Charlotte Faircloth, University of Kent, UK
5. The Naturalist Discourse Surrounding Breastfeeding among French Mothers
Gervaise Debucquet, Audencia Nantes School of Management, France, and Valérie Adt, L'Institut Interdisciplinaire du Contemporain, France
6. 'Who knows if one day, in the future, they will get married...?': Considerations about Breast Milk, Migration and Milk Banking in Italy
Rossella Cevese, Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy
7. Religion, Wet-nursing and Laying the Ground for Breast Milk Banking in Darfur, Sudan
Abdullahi El Tom, National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Ireland
8. Between Proscription and Control of Breastfeeding in West Africa: Women's Strategies Regarding Prevention of HIV Transmission
Alice Desclaux and Chiara Alfieri, both of Université d'Aix-Marseille, France
9. 'Impersonal Perspectives' on Public Health Guidelines on Infant Feeding and HIV in Malawi
Anne Matthews, Dublin City University, Ireland
10. Breastfeeding and Bonding: Issues and Dilemmas in Surrogacy
Sunita Reddy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, Tulsi Patel, University of Delhi, India, Birgitte Bruun Nielsen, Aarhus University, Denmark, and Malene Tanderup, Aarhus University, Denmark
11. Breast Milk Donation as Care Work
Katherine Carroll, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
12. Women and Children First?: Gender, Power and Resources, and their Implications for Infant Feeding
Vanessa Maher, University of Verona, Italy

Bibliography
Index

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