Resumen : Data for this study of Jamaican women's experiences with abortion, pregnancy, and menstrual regulation and ethnomedical and other cultural beliefs are from fieldwork collected during 1988 and 1989 in a coastal village east of Port Antonio and other urban research. A brief description is presented of Jamaican economic, social, and historical conditions. Abortion is viewed as a subversion of the social and moral order and as a "backward" practice. Abortion is "uncivilized" and against the teachings of civilized Christian religion. It is argued that ethnographers must focus both on the value of children as well as the value of parenting in rural Jamaica in order to fully explain reproductive practices such as abortion. Jamaica is described as a country with a pronatalist ideology and strong beliefs about caring for others that arise from beliefs about kinship and social adulthood. Abortion is practiced within this context. It is estimated that about 20-30% of pregnancies resulted in abortions in 1981. In 1989, 55% of pregnancies were reported to be mistimed and 20% were unwanted. The use of abortion requires a shift away from kinship and parenting ideals. Women both expect their sons to be irresponsible and denounce "baby fathers" who do not offer support. Male irresponsibility is given as one reason for abortion. Other reasons involve economic pressures and tense gender relations. Abortion is also viewed as the removal of "blockage" or undesirable matter from the "belly" of the woman. The "blood tie" between the baby's mother and father and kinship obligations are severed. Conception is viewed as a lengthy process, and the use of medicinal purges to "wash out the fetus" may not be considered an abortion but as a "clearing of perceived sickness." Jamaican women are aware of a variety of abortifacients. Abortion is identified with late term expulsion of the fetus. "Bush doctors" and spiritual healers, whose numbers are declining, may be consulted for reasons of privacy and effectiveness.Abortion is not condoned in Jamaica. Its meaning is linked to the meanings of kinship and parenthood, which are expressed through procreation and involve altruism and the assumption of responsibility for the well-being of others. Abortion subverts these ideals but indigenous methods for it are known and are secretly used. The inconsistencies between abortion talk and abortion practice are examined, and the structural functions of abortion (and of its culturally constructed, ideological meaning) are discussed. The distinction--and the overlap--between abortion as such and menstrual regulation is explored. The use of the culturally constructed `witchcraft baby' syndrome to justify abortion is also investigated.
Web site : http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02779536