R Davis-Floyd
Biographic Data
| ID | 16223 |
|---|---|
| NAME | R Davis-Floyd |
| GIVEN NAMES | R |
| FAMILY NAME | Davis-Floyd |
| SIGNATURE | DAVIS-FLOYD R |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Austin |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1963-6423 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 256 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1987 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Traditional Midwives: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Ritual: What It Is, How It Works, and Why
Ritual: What It Is, How It Works, and Why
Designed for both academic and lay audiences, this book identifies the characteristics of ritual and, via multiple examples, details how ritual works on the human body and brain to produce its often profound effects. These include enhancing courage, effecting healing, and generating group cohesion by enacting cultural—or individual—beliefs and values. It also shows what happens when ritual fails
Appendix 2 List of Documentary Films about Ritual
Birthing Techno-Sapiens: Human-Technology Co-Evolution and the Future of Reproduction
Obstetric iatrogenesis in the United States: The spectrum of unintentional harm, disrespect, violence, and abuse
'Medical iatrogenesis' was first defined by Illich as injuries 'done to patients by ineffective, unsafe, and erroneous treatments'. Following Lokumage's original usage of the term, this paper explores 'obstetric iatrogenesis' along a spectrum ranging from unintentional harm (UH) to overt disrespect, violence, and abuse (DVA), employing the acronym 'UHDVA' for this spectrum. This paper draws attention to the systemic maltreatment rooted in the tec…
Indigenous Midwives and the Biomedical System among the Karamojong of Uganda: Introducing the Partnership Paradigm
Certainly there can be no argument against every woman being attended at birth by a skilled birth attendant. Currently, as elsewhere, the Ugandan government favors a biomedical model of care to achieve this aim, even though the logistical realities in certain regions mitigate against its realisation. This article addresses the Indigenous midwives of the Karamojong tribe in Northeastern Uganda and their biosocial model of birth, and describes the …
Birthing Between the “Traditional” and the “Modern”: DāĪ Practices and Childbearing Women’s Choices During Covid-19 in Pakistan
Pregnancy and birth are biological phenomena that carry heavy cultural overlays, and pregnant and birthing women need care and attention during both ordinary and extraordinary times. Most Pakistani pregnant women now go to doctors and hospitals for their perinatal care. Yet traditional community midwives, called DāĪ in the singular and Dāyūn in the plural, still attend 24% of all Pakistani births, primarily in rural areas. In this article, via da…
The Impacts of Covid-19 on US Maternity Care Practices: A Followup Study
This article extends the findings of a rapid response article researched in April 2020 to illustrate how providers' practices and attitudes toward COVID-19 had shifted in response to better evidence, increased experience, and improved guidance on how SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 impacted maternity care in the United States. This article is based on a review of current labor and delivery guidelines in relation to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, and on an emai…
The Interplay of Words and Politics During Covid-19: Contextualizing the Universal Pandemic Vocabulary
In this article, we examine the impacts and effects of the words and terms now related to COVID-19 that have become globally pervasive in social discourse. Illustrating the ongoing interplay between words and politics, we demonstrate how terminologies may shape our interpretations of our experiences and affect the coping strategies we implement. Our arguments draw on Ali’s ethnographic fieldwork on health and illness in Pakistan—primarily on meas…
Pregnancy, Birth and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States
How quickly and in what ways are US maternity care practices changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Our data indicate that partners and doulas are being excluded from birthing rooms leaving mothers unsupported, while providers face lack of protective equipment and unclear guidelines. We investigate rapidly shifting protocols for in- and out-of-hospital births and the decision making behind them. We ask, will COVID-19 cause women, families, and pr…
Birthing Practices
This entry begins with an evolutionary perspective, summarizing anthropological findings that cultures that evolved midwifery traditions would likely have had a survival advantage. It describes the cultural overlays on the physiological processes of labor and birth as ritualized in ways that reflect the core values and beliefs of a given society and also reflect women's status in that society. Rich and nurturant birth traditions and practices ten…
Open and Closed Knowledge Systems, the 4 Stages of Cognition, and the Cultural Management of Birth
This conceptual article looks at levels or Stages of Cognition, equating each of the four stages I examine with an anthropological concept. I equate Stage One--rigid or concrete thinking--with Naïve Realism ("our way is the only way", Fundamentalism ("our way should be the only way and those who do not follow it are doomed"), and Fanaticism ("our way is so right that everyone who disagrees with it should be either converted or eliminated"). I equ…
Anthropological Engagement at a Global Women's Health Conference: A Report on the Women Deliver Conference, Kuala Lumpur 2013
This past May a major international conference called Women Deliver took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Women Deliver is a relatively new but significant force in the international reproductive health arena. Since its first conference in 2007 in London with 1,500 attending, it has rapidly grown in size and reputation. The second conference took place in Washington DC in 2010 with 3,000 attendees. Women Deliver Kuala Lumpur was the biggest confe…
Working with Anthropology in Policy and Practice: An Activist's Report
Preface This is the first in what we intend to be a series of practically focused and reflective articles by anthropologists who work in policy or practice, discussing and sharing their experiences of ‘engaged’ anthropology. —Christine McCourt, Editor, May 2011
Anthropology and Birth Activism: What Do We Know
Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Why do so many American women allow themselves to become enmeshed in the standardized routines of technocratic childbirth--routines that can be insensitive, unnecessary, and even unhealthy? Anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd first addressed these questions in the 1992 edition. Her new preface to this 2003 edition of a book that has been read, applauded, and loved by women all over the world, makes it clear that the issues surrounding childbirth re…
Reconceiving Midwifery
Home-birth emergencies in the US and Mexico: The Trouble With Transport
The technocratic, humanistic, and holistic paradigms of childbirth
This article describes three paradigms of health care that heavily influence contemporary childbirth, most particularly in the west, but increasingly around the world: the technocratic, humanistic, and holistic models of medicine. These models differ fundamentally in their definitions of the body and its relationship to the mind, and thus in the health care approaches they charter. The technocratic model stresses mind-body separation and sees the…
Introduction. Daughters of time: The shifting identities of contemporary midwives
La partera profesional: Articulating identity and cultural space for a new kind of midwife in Mexico
This article documents the emergence of a new kind of midwife in Mexico, the thoroughly postmodern partera profesional. It traces the transnational conjunctures that facilitated her creation, illustrates aspects of her philosophy and praxis, and probes her ongoing articulations of identity. These women, who are of diverse sociocultural backgrounds, initially sought training from American direct-entry midwives in the independent out-of-hospital mi…
Embodied Progress: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception
Embodied Progress:. Cultural Account of Assisted Conception. Sarah Franklin. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.252 pp
Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction. Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 (cloth and paper), xii. 450 pages
Intuition as Authoritative Knowledge in Midwifery and Homebirth
As defined by Jordan (1992, 1993[1978]), authoritative knowledge motivates decision and action. Based on interviews with 22 white middle-class midwives in the United States conducted between 1992 and 1993, this article explores the inner knowing that constitutes a primary source of authoritative knowledge for homebirthers but is granted no authority in the realm of technomedicine. The purpose of this article is to call attention to these midwives…
The technocratic body: American childbirth as cultural expression
Intuition as Authoritative Knowledge in Midwifery and Homebirth
As defined by Jordan (1992, 1993[1978]), authoritative knowledge motivates decision and action. Based on interviews with 22 white middle-class midwives in the United States conducted between 1992 and 1993, this article explores the inner knowing that constitutes a primary source of authoritative knowledge for homebirthers but is granted no authority in the realm of technomedicine. The purpose of this article is to call attention to these midwives…
The role of obstetrical rituals in the resolution of cultural anomaly
Obstetric Training As a Rite of Passage
In this article I interpret obstetric training as an initiatory rite of passage through which nascent obstetricians are socialized into the technological model of birth, the core value and belief system of American obstetrics. Interviews with obstetricians and obstetrical residents, as well as published accounts by physicians, are used to examine both the fundamental knowledge imparted in the rituals of hospital delivery and the process by which …
Home-birth emergencies in the US and Mexico: The Trouble With Transport
The Technological Model of Birth
La logique du traitement obstetrical de la naissance aux Etats-Unis. Ce modele technologique de la naissance utilise comme metaphore de base la chaine de production industrielle et conforme les croyances personnelles des parturientes au modele ideologique dominant des societes industrielles
Pregnancy, Birth and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States
How quickly and in what ways are US maternity care practices changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Our data indicate that partners and doulas are being excluded from birthing rooms leaving mothers unsupported, while providers face lack of protective equipment and unclear guidelines. We investigate rapidly shifting protocols for in- and out-of-hospital births and the decision making behind them. We ask, will COVID-19 cause women, families, and pr…
La partera profesional: Articulating identity and cultural space for a new kind of midwife in Mexico
This article documents the emergence of a new kind of midwife in Mexico, the thoroughly postmodern partera profesional. It traces the transnational conjunctures that facilitated her creation, illustrates aspects of her philosophy and praxis, and probes her ongoing articulations of identity. These women, who are of diverse sociocultural backgrounds, initially sought training from American direct-entry midwives in the independent out-of-hospital mi…
In the Way of Our Grandmothers: A Cultural View of Twentieth-Century Midwifery in Florida
The Impacts of Covid-19 on US Maternity Care Practices: A Followup Study
This article extends the findings of a rapid response article researched in April 2020 to illustrate how providers' practices and attitudes toward COVID-19 had shifted in response to better evidence, increased experience, and improved guidance on how SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 impacted maternity care in the United States. This article is based on a review of current labor and delivery guidelines in relation to SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, and on an emai…
Introduction. Daughters of time: The shifting identities of contemporary midwives
Indigenous Midwives and the Biomedical System among the Karamojong of Uganda: Introducing the Partnership Paradigm
Certainly there can be no argument against every woman being attended at birth by a skilled birth attendant. Currently, as elsewhere, the Ugandan government favors a biomedical model of care to achieve this aim, even though the logistical realities in certain regions mitigate against its realisation. This article addresses the Indigenous midwives of the Karamojong tribe in Northeastern Uganda and their biosocial model of birth, and describes the …
Birthing Between the “Traditional” and the “Modern”: DāĪ Practices and Childbearing Women’s Choices During Covid-19 in Pakistan
Pregnancy and birth are biological phenomena that carry heavy cultural overlays, and pregnant and birthing women need care and attention during both ordinary and extraordinary times. Most Pakistani pregnant women now go to doctors and hospitals for their perinatal care. Yet traditional community midwives, called DāĪ in the singular and Dāyūn in the plural, still attend 24% of all Pakistani births, primarily in rural areas. In this article, via da…
Anthropology and Birth Activism: What Do We Know
Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception. Jeannette EDWARDS, Sarah FRANKLIN, Eric HIRSCH, FRANCES PRICE, and Marilyn STRATHERN
The Technological Model of Birth
La logique du traitement obstetrical de la naissance aux Etats-Unis. Ce modele technologique de la naissance utilise comme metaphore de base la chaine de production industrielle et conforme les croyances personnelles des parturientes au modele ideologique dominant des societes industrielles
Obstetric Training As a Rite of Passage
In this article I interpret obstetric training as an initiatory rite of passage through which nascent obstetricians are socialized into the technological model of birth, the core value and belief system of American obstetrics. Interviews with obstetricians and obstetrical residents, as well as published accounts by physicians, are used to examine both the fundamental knowledge imparted in the rituals of hospital delivery and the process by which …
In the Way of Our Grandmothers: A Cultural View of Twentieth-Century Midwifery in Florida
The role of obstetrical rituals in the resolution of cultural anomaly
Maternity, Medicine, and Power: Reproductive Decisions in Urban Benin. Carolyn Fishel Sargent
The technocratic body: American childbirth as cultural expression
Birth As an American Rite of Passage
Feminist Messages: Coding in Women's Folk Culture. Joan Newlon Radner, ed
Technologies of Procreation: Kinship in the Age of Assisted Conception. Jeannette EDWARDS, Sarah FRANKLIN, Eric HIRSCH, FRANCES PRICE, and Marilyn STRATHERN
Intuition as Authoritative Knowledge in Midwifery and Homebirth
As defined by Jordan (1992, 1993[1978]), authoritative knowledge motivates decision and action. Based on interviews with 22 white middle-class midwives in the United States conducted between 1992 and 1993, this article explores the inner knowing that constitutes a primary source of authoritative knowledge for homebirthers but is granted no authority in the realm of technomedicine. The purpose of this article is to call attention to these midwives…
Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction
Conceiving the New World Order: The Global Politics of Reproduction. Faye D. Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp. eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995 (cloth and paper), xii. 450 pages
Embodied Progress: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception
Embodied Progress:. Cultural Account of Assisted Conception. Sarah Franklin. London and New York: Routledge, 1997.252 pp
The technocratic, humanistic, and holistic paradigms of childbirth
This article describes three paradigms of health care that heavily influence contemporary childbirth, most particularly in the west, but increasingly around the world: the technocratic, humanistic, and holistic models of medicine. These models differ fundamentally in their definitions of the body and its relationship to the mind, and thus in the health care approaches they charter. The technocratic model stresses mind-body separation and sees the…
Introduction. Daughters of time: The shifting identities of contemporary midwives
La partera profesional: Articulating identity and cultural space for a new kind of midwife in Mexico
This article documents the emergence of a new kind of midwife in Mexico, the thoroughly postmodern partera profesional. It traces the transnational conjunctures that facilitated her creation, illustrates aspects of her philosophy and praxis, and probes her ongoing articulations of identity. These women, who are of diverse sociocultural backgrounds, initially sought training from American direct-entry midwives in the independent out-of-hospital mi…
Home-birth emergencies in the US and Mexico: The Trouble With Transport
Birth as an American Rite of Passage
Why do so many American women allow themselves to become enmeshed in the standardized routines of technocratic childbirth--routines that can be insensitive, unnecessary, and even unhealthy? Anthropologist Robbie Davis-Floyd first addressed these questions in the 1992 edition. Her new preface to this 2003 edition of a book that has been read, applauded, and loved by women all over the world, makes it clear that the issues surrounding childbirth re…
Reconceiving Midwifery
Anthropology and Birth Activism: What Do We Know
Working with Anthropology in Policy and Practice: An Activist's Report
Preface This is the first in what we intend to be a series of practically focused and reflective articles by anthropologists who work in policy or practice, discussing and sharing their experiences of ‘engaged’ anthropology. —Christine McCourt, Editor, May 2011
Anthropological Engagement at a Global Women's Health Conference: A Report on the Women Deliver Conference, Kuala Lumpur 2013
This past May a major international conference called Women Deliver took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Women Deliver is a relatively new but significant force in the international reproductive health arena. Since its first conference in 2007 in London with 1,500 attending, it has rapidly grown in size and reputation. The second conference took place in Washington DC in 2010 with 3,000 attendees. Women Deliver Kuala Lumpur was the biggest confe…
Birthing Practices
This entry begins with an evolutionary perspective, summarizing anthropological findings that cultures that evolved midwifery traditions would likely have had a survival advantage. It describes the cultural overlays on the physiological processes of labor and birth as ritualized in ways that reflect the core values and beliefs of a given society and also reflect women's status in that society. Rich and nurturant birth traditions and practices ten…
Open and Closed Knowledge Systems, the 4 Stages of Cognition, and the Cultural Management of Birth
This conceptual article looks at levels or Stages of Cognition, equating each of the four stages I examine with an anthropological concept. I equate Stage One--rigid or concrete thinking--with Naïve Realism ("our way is the only way", Fundamentalism ("our way should be the only way and those who do not follow it are doomed"), and Fanaticism ("our way is so right that everyone who disagrees with it should be either converted or eliminated"). I equ…
The Interplay of Words and Politics During Covid-19: Contextualizing the Universal Pandemic Vocabulary
In this article, we examine the impacts and effects of the words and terms now related to COVID-19 that have become globally pervasive in social discourse. Illustrating the ongoing interplay between words and politics, we demonstrate how terminologies may shape our interpretations of our experiences and affect the coping strategies we implement. Our arguments draw on Ali’s ethnographic fieldwork on health and illness in Pakistan—primarily on meas…
Pregnancy, Birth and the Covid-19 Pandemic in the United States
How quickly and in what ways are US maternity care practices changing due to the COVID-19 pandemic? Our data indicate that partners and doulas are being excluded from birthing rooms leaving mothers unsupported, while providers face lack of protective equipment and unclear guidelines. We investigate rapidly shifting protocols for in- and out-of-hospital births and the decision making behind them. We ask, will COVID-19 cause women, families, and pr…
Sociology (28 works) · Political science (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Medicine (13 works) · Law (11 works) · History (8 works) · Maternal and Perinatal Health Interventions (8 works) · Nursing (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Global Maternal and Child Health (7 works)