‘Holistic Mothers’ or ‘Bad Mothers’?: Challenging Biomedical Models of the Body in Portugal
This paper is based on early fieldwork findings on ‘holistic mothering’ in contemporary Portugal. I use holistic mothering as an umbrella term to cover different mothering choices, which are rooted in the assumption that pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood are important spiritual occasions for...
| Published in: | Religion & gender |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Brill
[2016]
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| In: |
Religion & gender
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Portugal
/ Motherhood
/ Birth
/ Spirituality
/ Holism
/ Controversy
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| RelBib Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion AZ New religious movements KBH Iberian Peninsula NBE Anthropology NCH Medical ethics |
| Further subjects: | B
Biomedicine
B Holistic Mothering B Homebirth B Goddess Spirituality B Portugal B Cam |
| Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | This paper is based on early fieldwork findings on ‘holistic mothering’ in contemporary Portugal. I use holistic mothering as an umbrella term to cover different mothering choices, which are rooted in the assumption that pregnancy, childbirth and early childhood are important spiritual occasions for both mother and child. Considering that little social scientific literature exists about the religious dimension of alternative mothering choices, I present here a first description of this phenomenon and offer some initial anthropological reflections, paying special attention to the influence of Goddess spirituality on holistic mothers. Drawing on Pamela Klassen’s ethnography about religion and home birth in America (2001), I argue that in Portugal holistic mothers are challenging biomedical models of the body, asking for a more woman-centred care, and contributing to the process, already widespread in certain other European countries, of ‘humanising’ pregnancy and childbirth. |
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| ISSN: | 1878-5417 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion & gender
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.18352/rg.10128 |