Drawing on both sociological and anthropological perspectives, this volume explores cross-national trends and everyday experiences of 'parenting'. Parenting in Global Perspective examines the significance of 'parenting' as a subject of professional expertise, and activity in which adults are increasingly expected to be emotionally absorbed and become personally fulfilled. By focusing the significance of parenting as a form of relationship and as mediated by family relationships across time and space, the book explores the points of accommodation and points of tension between parenting as defined by professionals, and those experienced by parents themselves. Specific themes include: the ways in which the moral context for parenting is negotiated and sustained the structural constraints to 'good' parenting (particularly in cases of immigration or reproductive technologies) the relationship between intimate family life and broader cultural trends, parenting culture, policy making and nationhood parenting and/as adult 'identity-work'. Including contributions on parenting from a range of ethnographic locales - from Europe, Canada and the US, to non-Euro-American settings such as Turkey, Chile and Brazil, this volume presents a uniquely critical and international perspective, which positions parenting as a global ideology that intersects in a variety of ways with the political, social, cultural, and economic positions of parents and families.

Drawing on both sociological and anthropological perspectives, this volume explores cross-national trends and everyday experiences of 'parenting'. Parenting in Global Perspective examines the significance of 'parenting' as a subject of professional expertise, and activity in which adults are increasingly expected to be emotionally absorbed and become personally fulfilled. By focusing the significance of parenting as a form of relationship and as mediated by family relationships across time and space, the book explores the points of accommodation and points of tension between parenting as defined by professionals, and those experienced by parents themselves. Specific themes include: the ways in which the moral context for parenting is negotiated and sustained the structural constraints to 'good' parenting (particularly in cases of immigration or reproductive technologies) the relationship between intimate family life and broader cultural trends, parenting culture, policy making and nationhood parenting and/as adult 'identity-work'. Including contributions on parenting from a range of ethnographic locales - from Europe, Canada and the US, to non-Euro-American settings such as Turkey, Chile and Brazil, this volume presents a uniquely critical and international perspective, which positions parenting as a global ideology that intersects in a variety of ways with the political, social, cultural, and economic positions of parents and families.

Anthropologist Linda Layne takes a theoretically informed approach to the topic of miscarriage and stillbirth. About 20% of all pregnancies in the U.S. end in miscarriage or stillbirth, yet pregnancy loss is not a socially accepted topic of discussion. To cope, many middle-class women join pregnancy loss support groups. Layne studies these groups and the rituals they create to help would-be-parents through their loss. The book takes an historical look at pregnancy loss in America and then moves to the present, examining how current reproductive technologies (home pregnancy tests, sonograms, etc.) and the abortion debate have reworked notions of "foetal personhood." Layne rounds out her argument by calling for feminists to put pregnancy loss on their agenda to help increase awareness about this hidden but painful subject and to effect necessary changes and improvements in the current socio-medical management of pregnancy loss.

Contents:
1. My Miscarriage Years 2. Caught in the Middle: Pregnancy Loss at the Turn of the Century 3. Studying Pregnancy Loss Support 4. Challenges to Narratives of Linear Progress 5. New Reproductive Technologies and the Fetal Subject 6. 'He Was a Real Baby With Baby Things': A Material Culture Analysis of Personhood, Parenthood, and Pregnancy Loss 7. 'True Gifts from God': Paradoxes of Motherhood, Sacrifice, and Enrichment 8. 'Never Such Innocence Again': Irony, Nature, and Technoscience 9. 'I Will Never Forget You': Trauma, Memory, and Moral Identity 10. A Feminist Program for Pregnancy Loss Appendix: Contact Information References Cited Index

In this provocative examination of collective identity in Jordan, Linda Layne challenges long-held Western assumptions that Arabs belong to easily recognizable corporate social groups. Who is a "true" Jordanian? Who is a "true" Bedouin? These questions, according to Layne, are examples of a kind of pigeonholing that has distorted the reality of Jordanian national politics. In developing an alternate approach, she shows that the fluid social identities of Jordan emerge from an ongoing dialogue among tribespeople, members of the intelligentsia Hashemite rulers, and Western social scientists. Many commentators on social identity in the Middle East limit their studies to the village level, but Layne's goal is to discover how the identity-building processes of the locality and of the nation condition each other. She finds that the tribes creates their own cultural "homes" through a dialogue with official nationalist rhetoric and Jordanian urbanites, while King Hussein, in turn, maintains the idea of the "homeland" in many ways that are powerfully influenced by the tribespeople. The identities so formed resemble the shifting, irregular shapes of postmodernist landscapes-but Hussein and the Jordanian people are also beginning to use a classically modernist linear narrative to describe themselves. Layne maintains, however, that even with this change Jordanian identities will remain resistant to all-or-nothing descriptions. Linda L. Layne is Alma and H. Erwin Hale Teaching Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Part of a series examining different aspects of knowledge and society, this volume focuses on the anthropology of science and technology. Divided into three parts, it covers: the reconstruction of medical science and technology; science and technology at large; and discipline, culture and power.

In this provocative examination of collective identity in Jordan, Linda Layne challenges long-held Western assumptions that Arabs belong to easily recognizable corporate social groups. Who is a "true" Jordanian? Who is a "true" Bedouin? These questions, according to Layne, are examples of a kind of pigeonholing that has distorted the reality of Jordanian national politics. In developing an alternate approach, she shows that the fluid social identities of Jordan emerge from an ongoing dialogue among tribespeople, members of the intelligentsia Hashemite rulers, and Western social scientists. Many commentators on social identity in the Middle East limit their studies to the village level, but Layne's goal is to discover how the identity-building processes of the locality and of the nation condition each other. She finds that the tribes creates their own cultural "homes" through a dialogue with official nationalist rhetoric and Jordanian urbanites, while King Hussein, in turn, maintains the idea of the "homeland" in many ways that are powerfully influenced by the tribespeople. The identities so formed resemble the shifting, irregular shapes of postmodernist landscapes-but Hussein and the Jordanian people are also beginning to use a classically modernist linear narrative to describe themselves. Layne maintains, however, that even with this change Jordanian identities will remain resistant to all-or-nothing descriptions. Linda L. Layne is Alma and H. Erwin Hale Teaching Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Originally published in 1994. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

We are said to be suffering a narcissism epidemic when the need for collective action seems more pressing than ever. The traits of Selfishness and selflessness address the 'proper' and 'improper' relationship between one's self and others. The work they do during periods of social instability and cultural change is probed in this original, interdisciplinary collection. Contributions range from an examination of how these concepts animated the eighteenth-century anti-slavery campaigners to a dissection of the way middle-class mothers' experiences illustrate gendered struggles over how much and to whom one is morally obliged to give.