Bodies of Knowledge

This is a rich ethnography of traditional midwifery and medicalized reproduction as globalization touches an island.Focusing on Rhodes, an island that blends continuity with the past and rapid social change in often unexpected ways, the author paints a detailed portrait of how a longstanding system of ""local"" gynecological and obstetrical knowledge under the control of women was rapidly displaced in the postwar period, and how the technologically-intensive biomedical model that took its place in turn assumed its own distinctive signature.