Being Pregnant in a Rural South Indian Village: Bodily Experiences and Socio-Cultural Constructs of Pregnancy

Abstract

Pregnancy never solely is a physiological or biological process. Anthropologists have pointed out that pregnancy and birth are socially constructed and reside in a socio-cultural context that forms the basis for the meaning that can be ascribed to these processes. With this thesis, it has been my aim to find out whether and how bodily and emotional experiences of women are connected to socio-cultural constructions of both pregnancy and motherhood. Zooming in to these sociocultural constructions, I have attempted to explore wheter become a mother can, on the one hand, be interpreted as a journey towards adulthood/womanhood, and on the other hand, I have tried to investigate whether pregnancy and mother are to be seen as clear vital conjunctures in the individual and social lives of women living in a small scale rural village in South India. Trefwoorden:* (gescheiden door ;)