Constructed Females: Confrontation And Complicity Between Body And Power In The Childbirth Field

Engles divides the human society production into material life resources and humankind's production.He points out that the latter plays a basic effect on the social progress and development.As a traditional agricultural country,with the way of livelihood on farming generation by generation,Chinese families need the labors eagerly which affects the concept of childbirth from a large extent.Especially in the daily life of countryside,childbirth not only symbolizes the continuity of human being itself,but also has something important to do with the continuity of family race.In order to ensure the safety of birthing,the folk have accumulated rich knowledge and technology of childbirth during a long time practice.Most childbirth knowledge is descended by taboos and customs,while technology of it is by ceremony and body marking deeply in the memory of the folk and individuals.The technology of childbirth,which is created and descended on the purpose of making themselves live and develop better ,embodies the living logic and wisdom of the folk in the interaction between nature and society.And that is why the technology of childbirth is different from that in the field of natural science.Through the body practice,experience and knowledge of childbirth,females play a different role from males,which is strictly divided on the basis of gender work division endowed by the social culture in this field.On the other hand,the practice and knowledge production in childbirth emphasize the natural physiological differences between males and females.Meanwhile, it is gradually endowed more historical and social cultural meanings.The gender identity of females in society is gained by the rule of males and gradually turns into their self-consciousness.With the process of modernization in China,the government's power and the specialist system penetrate the folk's daily life in the countryside,which decreases the risk of childbirth and supervises the folk's childbirth to some extent,and finally rewrites and takes over the folk's childbirth technology. In this way,females'bodies were controlled and oppressed in a more covert way by the society.On the purpose of showing the careness to the females'bodies,this thesis explicates the relationship among the females' bodies,knowledge and power in the angle of childbirth folklore,as well as how the females'bodies were constructed and also the new sufferings they may encounter in modern society. We'll explain all these problems based on the childbirth folklore of Dajiaopu village in North Liaoning.The preface is about aims and significance of the paper,what accomplishments have made by other people,what methods the paper uses and what creations and shortcomings its has.Chapter One gives a brief introduction about the location of Dajiaopu village and the livelihood,marriage and childbirth of its residents.So we can have a further understanding of their attitudes on marriage,childbirth and their behavior logic.Taking the structure into consideration,I'd like to introduce some important concepts and the division of childbirth in this chapter.Chapter Two draws on Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to analyze profitable motives behind the agents'practice based on the detailed description of childbirth folklore during the preparing and recovering period.And the motives tend to be considered as the agents'living strategies.Chapter Three still uses Bourdieu's practice notion,from the angle of relationship to consider the different roles of profitable parties in childbirth ceremony through the shows of childbirth ceremony which was told by a midwife.It also surveys the cultural function and takes the modernized transformation of childbirth ceremony into deep consideration. Chapter Four analyzes the folklore of childbirth technology from the body practice about a midwife's experience and how the nation and the folk, as well as the tradition and the modern,interact on Connerton's Theory of Incorporation.Chapter Five quotes Foucault's relationship perspective,concerning body, knowledge and power,to reflect on the constructed females'bodies controlled and oppressed in a more covert way and to analyze the females'condition and new sufferings confronted in modern society.There indeed exists physiological reason for females'construction,however,the most important reason is social culture.The confrontation and complicity between body and power stand out in the childbirth field.In modern society,the combination of power and knowledge refuses to give freedom back to females'bodies,which makes females'bodies controlled and oppressed in a more covert way.In hopes of waking females'concerns to themselves,the finishing part illustrates the above problems.