Anthropology Archive

Robbie DavisFloyd

• Get Pregnant Quickly and Naturally Within 2 Months
• The Secret of How To Grow African American Hair
• American Pronunciation Guides for ESL Perfectionists

Robbie Davis-Floyd, Ph.D., a cultural-medical anthropologist, senior research fellow at the University of Texas, Austin, and fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, specializes in the anthropology of reproduction (http://www.davis-floyd.com). For her first book, Birth as an American Rite of Passage (1992), she interviewed one hundred women about their pregnancy and childbirth experiences. In 1993 she updated and expanded Jordan's classic Birth in Four Cultures and subsequently coedited Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge (1997), a collection of ethnographies on birth in sixteen cultures, and Cyborg Babies (1998), a collection of anthropological analyses of the technological reproductive experience. She studied the paradigm shifts of holistic physicians, published in From Doctor to Healer (coauthored with G. St. John) (1998).

Davis-Floyd's primary research interests remain grounded in the anthropology of reproduction, specifically childbirth, midwifery, and obstetrics. In 1996 and 1998, she received consecutive Wenner-Gren grants to study the development of direct-entry midwifery in North America. She has published a number of articles from this research focusing on midwifery education (1998a, 1998b), politics (2000, 2003), and identity articulation (Davis-Floyd and Davis, 1996; Davis-Floyd, 2001; Davis-Floyd, Cosminsky, and Pigg, 2001) in the United States and Mexico and coedited, with C. B. Johnson, Mainstreaming Midwives: The Politics of Change (2006). She has served as senior advisor to the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction since 2005.

Davis-Floyd continues her birth activism, helping to form coalitions, speaking at conferences promoting normal birth and breast-feeding, and (since 1994) serving as consumer representative to the board of the North American Registry of Midwives and since 2006 as editor for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative: 10 Steps to Optimal Maternity Services (http://www.imbci.org).

The chapters in the forthcoming collection, Birth Models That Work (coedited with L. Barclay, B. A. Daviss, and J. Tritten), describe and promote excellent birth models from twelve different countries in the developed and developing worlds.

of self-care practices. Many cultures believe that women should not be exposed to cold because it will shock or deplete the body of heat, which is thought to lead to illness. Although many taboos may seem unnecessary from biomedical perspectives, there are important reasons why they should be respected when they do not directly prejudice the health of mother or child. Taboos are often deeply embedded in cultural traditions, and their violation may evoke considerable anxiety for the mother. Given the psychophysio-logical importance of these rituals for relaxation and peace of mind, they should be permitted to support recuperation and healing.