| Japanese American Midwives: Culture, Community, and Health Politics, 1880-1950 Contributor(s): Smith, Susan L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0252072472 ISBN-13: 9780252072475 Publisher: University of Illinois Press OUR PRICE: $27.72 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2005 Annotation: As a part of late nineteenth-century Japan's modernizing quest for empire, midwifery was transformed into a new woman's profession, and the Issei midwives who moves to the united States ("sanba) served as cultural brokers as well as birth attendants. Arriving on the mainland, the midwives found an emerging welfare state in which the government assumed some responsibility for welfare, including health and midwifery. The history of Japanese American midwifery reveals the dynamic relationship between this welfare state and the history of women and health. The stories of these women, coupled with Susan L. Smith's astute analysis, demonstrates the impossibility of clearly separating domestic policy from foreign policy, public health from racial politics, medical care from women's care giving, and the history of women and health from the contest of national and international politics. By setting the history of Japanese American midwives in this larger context, Smith reveals little-known ethnic, racial, and regional aspects of women's history and the history of medicine. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Women's Studies - Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General - Medical | Health Care Delivery |
| Dewey: 362.198 |
| LCCN: 2005007104 |
| Series: Asian American Experience (University of Illinois) |
| Physical Information: 0.77" H x 6.44" W x 8.98" (1.06 lbs) 296 pages |
| Themes: - Sex & Gender - Feminine |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the late nineteenth century, Japan's modernizing quest for empire transformed midwifery into a new woman's profession. With the rise of Japanese immigration to the United States, Japanese midwives (sanba) served as cultural brokers as well as birth attendants for Issei women. They actively participated in the creation of Japanese American community and culture as preservers of Japanese birthing customs and agents of cultural change. Japanese American Midwives reveals the dynamic relationship between this welfare state and the history of women and health. Susan L. Smith blends midwives' individual stories with astute analysis to demonstrate the impossibility of clearly separating domestic policy from foreign policy, public health from racial politics, medical care from women's caregiving, and the history of women and health from national and international politics. By setting the history of Japanese American midwives in this larger context, Smith reveals little-known ethnic, racial, and regional aspects of women's history and the history of medicine. |