Tired of Weeping: Mother Love, Child Death, and Poverty in Guinea-Bissau

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University of Wisconsin Press, Dec 22, 2004 - Family & Relationships - 236 pages
In this comprehensive and provocative study of maternal reactions to child death in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, anthropologist Jónína Einarsdóttir challenges the assumption that mothers in high-poverty societies will neglect their children and fail to mourn their deaths as a survival strategy. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted from 1993 to 1998 among the matrilineal Papel, who reside in the Biombo region, this work includes theoretical discussion of reproductive practices, conceptions of children, childcare customs, interpretations of diseases and death, and infanticide. Einarsdóttir also brings compelling narratives of life experiences and reflections of Papel women.

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Contents

Marriage Relations
27
Burdens of Birth
60
Conceptualization of Children 888
88
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

Jónína Einarsdóttir is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland. Since 2001, she has conducted research on the ethical questions related to the treatment of underweight infants born in Iceland and the implication of such births for the families involved. She has done extensive fieldwork among the Papel of Guinea-Bissau.

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