Keywords:
Motherhood; Care work; Reproduction rights; Feminist studies; Ethnography
Abstract:
Anthropology and feminist studies have recognized, for several decades, that care is culturally informed and that the notions of femininity and motherhood implied in the Western context are products of the sexual division of labor engendered by racial capitalism. Contemporary studies on mothering experiences reveal that elaborations regarding the social, political and economic role of mothers are varied and reflect the intersectionality of social markers of race, class, gender, age, sexual orientation and region. Considering the diversity of approaches in these theoretical-methodological fields, this Panel intends to bring together ethnographic works that review dissident and hegemonic maternal practices all around the globe: experienced by women from popular and middle classes; racialized in different ways; homo or heterosexual; and coming from rural, indigenous and traditional communities or urban contexts. Likewise, we also seek for research that investigate the political-institutional guidelines of different States on social reproduction, considering the multiple moralities and gender regulations they reflect, and the way in which they configure the reality of mothers.