| This dissertation provides an ethnographic account of birthing practices among Rarámuri women in Northern Mexico. The Rarámuri practice of kin assisted birth is consonant with core cultural norms and social practices. Rarámuri curers diagnose and treat illness, but they typically do not assist at birth, which is a deemed a normal part of the life course. Health is maintained by adhering to community norms of thinking well and acting well, through such behavioral ideals as non violence, generosity, reciprocity, and modesty. Pregnant women minimize risk at birth by conforming to these ideals.; The Rarámuri, an indigenous population of northern Mexico, number about 100,000. They live in remote canyon regions of the Western Sierra Madre, engaging in subsistence horticulture and pastoralism. In recent years, increasing numbers of Rarámuri are migrating to urban areas, due to the effects of logging, drought, and drug growing, all of which contribute to loss of arable land. As a result, Rarámuri are entering urban areas in unprecedented numbers.; This dissertation draws upon reproductive histories, birth narratives, and participant observation in two sites: Chihuahua city and a remote rancho. The Mexican government provides health services to Rarámuri in both localities, and Rarámuri women have their most sustained and frequent interaction with mestizos when they seek health care. Reproductive health interactions are fraught with miscommunication, which Rarámuri experience as a loss of autonomy and control, leading to their reluctance to utilize services.; High infant and maternal mortality rates among the Rarámuri are typically blamed on non utilization of existing services. I provide an in depth and nuanced analysis, which addresses poverty and malnutrition, mistrust of state health and family planning agendas, and forms of institutional racism. I argue that the structural violence the Rarámuri experience is glossed over by reports which deflect responsibility and blame the victim. Rarámuri birthing practices are an expression of women's sense of agency, a form of resistance to a state apparatus they do not trust, and an important site of social reproduction where key values are transmitted and reaffirmed within families, extended kin groups, and Rarámuri society as a whole. |
