Family biography, fertility and memory-making in an Aids-affected South African site

Bibliographic Data

ID12447228
AuthorsKammila Naidoo (0000-0001-8576-4891, University of Johannesburg, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume20
Issue1
Pages106-121
Publication date2014-11-21
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe History of the Family (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1081-602X • E-ISSN: 1873-5398
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1081602x.2014.975735
OpenAlexW2140950287
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited24

The critical challenges of AIDS and poverty in post-apartheid South Africa impact the ways in which memories are articulated and family and fertility histories ultimately constructed. This article considers three life histories written in the course of ethnographic work on women's childbearing conducted intermittently between 1998 and 2014, and typical of other histories in the same peri-urban locale. Personal accounts of a mother and her two daughters initially centre on domestic strife and adversity – and the family as a whole is represented as struggling and disunited. In the aftermath of the death of one of the daughters from AIDS in 2001, the memories and discourse are subtly reworked by the two women in ways that are meant to counteract stigma, reclaim dignity and defend the family. The paper focuses on reproductive dynamics and memory-making in a hardship-driven and AIDS-affected setting and on the ethnographer's endeavours in witnessing, interviewing and making sense of people's ‘intent’ and ‘the urge to forget, to go on living’

Biography · Dignity · Ethnography · Fertility · Memory work · Political science · Population · Poverty · Sociology · Stigma (botany · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Demography · Gender Studies · Law · Psychology · Sex work and related issues

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