Description
Book SynopsisRejecting the "colonial encounter" paradigm pervasive in current studies, this title weaves together stories about autopsies and bicycles, obstetric surgery and male initiation, to reveal how concerns about strange new objects and procedures fashioned the hybrid social world of colonialism and its aftermath in Mobutu's Zaire.
Trade Review“ ‘Birth’ is more than the begetting of children and Nancy Rose Hunt’s ‘colonial lexicon’ is much more than a history of medicalized childbearing in the formerly Belgian Congo in colonial and post-colonial times. . . . With erudition and wit Hunt challenges conventional models—be they feminist, obstetric, colonial, missionary, or health-bureaucratic—about what it means to medicalize childbearing.”—Barbara Duden, Universität Hannover
“A highly original study. This book links medical work with maternity work in the context of arguments about gender relations and about feminist perspectives on writing history.”—Gillian Feeley-Harnik, author of
A Green Estate: Restoring Independence in MadagascarTable of ContentsIllustrations
Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Crocodiles and Wealth
2 Doctors and Airplanes
3 Dining and Surgery
4 Nurses and Bicycles
5 Babies and Forceps
6 Colonial Maternities
7 Debris
Departures
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
