Reproductive health is another area in which medical anthropologists have made significant contributions by applying their knowledge and methods to real medical practices. Medical anthropologists have studied reproduction in many cultures, analyzing the practices, beliefs, and treatment of those who are pregnant, their children, and their supporting network. Another area of interest has been the ritualization of pregnancy. Robbie Davis Floyd (2004) has done work on birth as a rite of passage and the role of the midwife in modern birth practices around the world, with a focus on medicalized birth in the United States. Her work highlights ways in which the experience of birth is made more complicated by policy. Midwives are shown to decrease the chances of complications in births, yet in many places they are denied a role in the birthing process. Regardless of patient preference and the documented success of midwives, in most settings in the United States doctors and medical professionals are given preference over midwives. Floyd argues that this preference sometimes puts the patient at risk. In the Western biomedical system, doctors are preferred and imbued with authoritative knowledge, which is a sense of legitimacy or perceived authenticity.
The work of Dána-Ain Davis (2019) on medical racism and inequalities in the health care system shows structural violence at work. Based on analysis of statistics and vivid ethnographic examples, Davis found that women of color experienced significantly higher rates of complications, including higher death rates for both mothers and infants, than White mothers and babies. Davis concludes that cultural bias and systemic racism are woven into the US health care system. These are often unacknowledged biases, unrecognized by those perpetrating them in the medical profession. Davis advocates for better policy to address these inequalities and help mothers maintain control over their bodies and the birthing process.
Profiles in Anthropology
Dána-Ain Davis 1958-
Personal History: Born in New York City, Dána-Ain Davis earned her PhD from City University of New York. Her work focuses on poverty, policy, and feminism, with a specific interest in urban areas of the United States. She is currently a professor of anthropology at Queens College (part of the City University of New York system). In addition to her teaching, she promotes change in policy and society through activism and her work in numerous political communities.
Before enrolling in college, Davis worked widely in publishing, broadcasting, and nonprofit work. She has worked for the Village Voice newspaper, the YWCA, the Village Center for Women, and Bronx AIDS Service. This work grounded her deeply in her community and the issues facing women, and in particular Black women in urban communities such as hers. These skills would aid her as she earned her PhD and began publishing her academic work.
She is the editor of Feminist Anthropology, a new journal focused on feminist anthropological work; sits on the editorial boards for Cultural Anthropology and Women’s’ Studies Quarterly; and in the fall of 2021 became the chair of her department.
Area of Anthropology: cultural anthropology, medical anthropology, public anthropology, feminist anthropology, urban anthropology
Accomplishments in the Field: Davis’s first book, Battered Black Women and Welfare Reform: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, was published in 2006 and focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and economic realities. The book also features her work with the theory of political economy, which looks at how economic conditions, law, and policy affect wealth distribution across groups, in this case how economic conditions disadvantage Black women. Davis then worked on two edited volumes focused on feminism and gender, entitled Black Genders and Sexualities (2012) and Feminist Activist Ethnography: Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America (2013), before publishing Feminist Ethnography: Thinking through Methodologies, Challenges, and Possibilities (2016) about feminism anthropology and ethnographic work.
Davis’s next work, Reproductive Injustice: Racism, Pregnancy, and Premature Birth (2019) fits more squarely into the realm of medical anthropology. This work examines the numerous issues that face women of color in regard to pregnancy and birth. Like her previous work, her latest book intersects with activism, aiming to improve medical and social justice for mothers and children.
Importance of Their Work: Activism sits at the heart of Davis’s work, which has won numerous awards for promoting justice and change. Her academic and activist work has helped inform new policy changes at the local, state, and national levels. Her work informs continuing work in urban studies, feminist theory and practice, reproductive health for women of color, and welfare reform.
The content of this course has been taken from the free Anthropology textbook by Openstax