Wednesday, October 18, 4:30-6:00pm, in Rosenwald 329
The Medicine and Its Objects Workshop presents the inimitable:
Camille Roussel (Comparative Human Development)
please join us to discuss:
“Protect Me from Pregnancy”: Rethinking (Bio)Politics in Guatemala
with opening comments by
Jenny Miao Hua (Anthropology and Medicine)
My project explores the emergence of a new Guatemalan public health campaign, called “Protect me from Pregnancy,” that seeks to prevent pregnancies in girls under the age of 14. While around 80% of child pregnancies result from abuse within the family, campaign organizers and health professionals are most concerned with the 20% of victims who, they believe, to be indigenous girls who become pregnant due to “backward indigenous tradition” of early marriage. On the one hand, the campaign appears to build upon a longstanding history of the state attempting to control and manage indigenous women’s reproduction. Yet campaign workers also see themselves as trying to break with this past by working to recognize the rights of indigenous women. My project uses the “Protect Me from Pregnancy” campaign to investigate the contemporary struggle to adopt a more multicultural form of governance in Guatemala as well as the role that biopolitics plays in shaping indigenous-state relations.
As always, discussion will be fruitful and refreshments bountiful!
To receive the paper, or if you have any questions or require assistance to attend, email the workshop coordinator: Kieran Kelley (kierankelley@uchicago.edu)
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