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Bodies, Kin, and Flow: Family Planning in Rural Jamaica
Author(s) -
Sobo Elisa J.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
medical anthropology quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.855
H-Index - 55
eISSN - 1548-1387
pISSN - 0745-5194
DOI - 10.1525/maq.1993.7.1.02a00040
Subject(s) - kinship , sociocultural evolution , embodied cognition , sociology , reproduction , psychology , gender studies , social psychology , anthropology , epistemology , ecology , biology , philosophy
This analysis of family planning investigates the links between embodied experiences, sociocultural forms, and ethnophysiological concerns. It focuses on the rural Jamaican concept of flow, which appears in ethnophysiological ideas and kinship beliefs and has ramifications for contraceptive practice. The experience of flow both on the somatic level and in social interaction lends structure to the local models concerning general health, reproductive health and procreation, and social reproduction. Cross‐culturally, the flow‐related experiences that women have of and through their bodies form the basis for much traditional health knowledge.