On Reproduction
On Reproduction Robbie Davis-Floyd and Sarah Franklin This article appears in the Sage Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Sage Publications, 2005. “Reproduction” in anthropology refers to the processes by which new social members are produced—specifically, the physiological processes of conception, pregnancy, birth, and child-raising. In its larger sense, “reproduction” is used to encompass the processes by which societies are reproduced for the future. The...
Read MoreReproductive Technologies
Reproductive Technologies Sarah Franklin PhD, Dept. of Sociology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK Robbie Davis-Floyd Ph D, Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin This article appears in the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women, New York: Routledge, 2001. All human societies in all historical periods have developed techniques to prevent and to facilitate conception, and to shape culturally the physiological processes of...
Read MoreInner Space and Outer Space as CyberSpace?
Inner Space and Outer Space as CyberSpace? Technocratizing Womb and World Paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association December 1994, Atlanta Draft for Oral Presentation–References Not Included. Abstract Current planning for the commercialization of outer space by a NASA/aerospace industry interface group called SATWG (Strategic Avionics Technology Working Group) is focusing on the creation of a “shared vision” that stresses increased...
Read MoreTechnologies of the Exterior / Interior
Technologies of the Exterior, Technologies of the Interior: Can We Expand the Discourse of Reproductive Studies? Robbie Davis-Floyd AFTERWORD to Body Talk: Rhetoric, Technology, Reproduction edited by Mary M. Lay, Laura J. Gurak, Clare Gravon, and Cynthia Myntti. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000, pp. 277-300. In their Introduction to this volume, the editors note that the new reproductive technologies “raise conflicts about how technology...
Read MoreFrom Technobirth to Cyborg Babies
From Technobirth to Cyborg Babies Reflections on the Emergent Discourse of a Holistic Anthropologist by Robbie Davis-Floyd (with contributions from Joe Dumit, whose editorial comments, together with my responses, appear in italics throughout) Chapter 13 in Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots, edited by Robbie Davis-Floyd and Joseph Dumit. New York: Routledge 1998:255-284. Cyborg imagery can help express two crucial arguments…first, the production of universal, totalizing...
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Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology and Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin, is a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology of reproduction. An international speaker and researcher, she is author of over 80 articles and of Birth as an American Rite of Passage (1992, 2004); coauthor of From Doctor to Healer: The Transformative Journey (1998); and coeditor of ten collections, including Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (1997); Cyborg Babies: From Techno-Sex to Techno-Tots (1998); and Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change (2006). Her latest is Birth Models That Work (2009), an edited collection highlighting excellent models of birth care around the world. This collection will be followed by Volume II: Birth Models on the Global Edge, coedited with Betty-Anne Daviss (forthcoming 2012). Her research on global trends and transformations in childbirth, obstetrics, and midwifery is ongoing. Robbie currently also serves as Editor for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (IMBCI) and Board Member of the International MotherBaby Childbirth Organization (IMBCO).