Sitting in my home office in Melbourne, I attended the first ever online international conference on Ayurveda and Epigenetics. My PhD project, which began a few months ago, addresses the circulation of epigenetic and postgenomic models of life in India. An international conference on the factors ‘that bring about epigenetic changes and the tools available through Ayurveda to restore …
Tag Archives: Maternity
On reproductive work and family, again
Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family
Verso, 2019. 224 pages.
In the first segment of the 1963 Oscar-winning anthology film Ieri, Oggi e Domani, Sophia Loren plays the role of Adelina, a Neapolitan woman who sells black market cigarettes to support her family. When she receives a fine that she cannot pay, she risks jail time. However, …
Bleach
My friend Dr. Muñoz makes his own bleach. He uses salt, water, and electrodes to render sodium hypochlorite. To do this, he has colonized a small space in a garage-cum-storage unit nestled on the grounds of the Managua health center where he works. His bleach-making is ad-hoc and off the books. Dr. Muñoz doesn’t get extra money or time from …
The biopolitics of maternal mortality: Anthropological observations from the Women Deliver Conference in Kuala Lumpur
Historically, attempts to alter the conditions and cultures of maternity and motherhood have been part of the civilizing projects of colonialism and the modernizing agendas of international development. The goals have varied over time and space — from the prevention of maternal and infant deaths amidst fears of a depleted labour pool, to the prevention of “excessive fertility” amidst fears …