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Decolonising Birth - An Indigenous Rite of Passage

Borda Jaklin, Maria LU (2021) SANK02 20211
Social Anthropology
Abstract
The European colonisation of the Americas has had effects on all parts of Indigenous lives. The institutionalised racism that separated Indigenous children from their families led to disconnection and loss of identities. Christian mission and imperialism intersected with Western medicine and forced sterilisations of Indigenous women as a means to reduce the Indigenous population. It also created a hierarchy of ontologies were traditional medicine lost its value and the birthing body was subjected to the dominance of male doctors and technology.
This thesis explores the medicalisation of childbirth in North America and the narratives of birth that it has created. It offers and insight into the emerging movement of Indigenous women that... (More)
The European colonisation of the Americas has had effects on all parts of Indigenous lives. The institutionalised racism that separated Indigenous children from their families led to disconnection and loss of identities. Christian mission and imperialism intersected with Western medicine and forced sterilisations of Indigenous women as a means to reduce the Indigenous population. It also created a hierarchy of ontologies were traditional medicine lost its value and the birthing body was subjected to the dominance of male doctors and technology.
This thesis explores the medicalisation of childbirth in North America and the narratives of birth that it has created. It offers and insight into the emerging movement of Indigenous women that resist hospital birth and chose to give birth at home. It aims to show how their bodies become the battlegrounds for resistance against paradigms that have created intergenerational traumas in their families, but also how the symbolic meaning of this resistance becomes a rite of passage, an attempt to transition from a stage of ethnic liminality to claiming an Indigenous identity. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Borda Jaklin, Maria LU
supervisor
organization
course
SANK02 20211
year
type
M2 - Bachelor Degree
subject
keywords
Social anthropology, indigeneity, childbirth, colonisation, identity
language
English
id
9051001
date added to LUP
2021-06-08 12:11:14
date last changed
2021-06-08 12:11:14
@misc{9051001,
  abstract     = {{The European colonisation of the Americas has had effects on all parts of Indigenous lives. The institutionalised racism that separated Indigenous children from their families led to disconnection and loss of identities. Christian mission and imperialism intersected with Western medicine and forced sterilisations of Indigenous women as a means to reduce the Indigenous population. It also created a hierarchy of ontologies were traditional medicine lost its value and the birthing body was subjected to the dominance of male doctors and technology.
This thesis explores the medicalisation of childbirth in North America and the narratives of birth that it has created. It offers and insight into the emerging movement of Indigenous women that resist hospital birth and chose to give birth at home. It aims to show how their bodies become the battlegrounds for resistance against paradigms that have created intergenerational traumas in their families, but also how the symbolic meaning of this resistance becomes a rite of passage, an attempt to transition from a stage of ethnic liminality to claiming an Indigenous identity.}},
  author       = {{Borda Jaklin, Maria}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Decolonising Birth - An Indigenous Rite of Passage}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}