Overview

Extensive social science research, particularly by anthropologists, has explored women's reproductive lives, their use of reproductive technologies, and their experiences as mothers and nurturers of children. Meanwhile, few if any volumes have explored men's reproductive concerns or contributions to women's reproductive health: Men are clearly viewed as the second sex in reproduction. This volume argues that the marginalization of men is an oversight of considerable proportions. It sheds new light on male reproduction from a cross-cultural, global perspective, focusing not only upon men in Europe and America but also those in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Both heterosexual and homosexual, married and unmarried men are featured in this volume, which assesses concerns ranging from masculinity and sexuality to childbirth and fatherhood.

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9781845454739

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Reviews

...an overdue first step in recognizing that men's role in contemporary human reproduction - from their gametes to their psyches - has been a neglected realm of scientific and scholarly pursuit.A * Robert D. Nachtigall, M.D., Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Francisco

2010 MOST NOTABLE RECENT COLLECTION PRIZE. AWARDED BY THE COUNCIL ON ANTHROPOLOGY AND REPRODUCTION. These researchers hail from four continents, thus providing a cross-cultural perspective as they give voice to men's experiences in the process of reproduction. The contributors use a variety of methodological approaches, including content analysis, participant observation, in-depth interviewing, reproductive history intakes, and survey questionnaires. The result is a comprehensive, engaging volume that will certainly trigger additional interest and research in this heretofore ignored aspect of men's lives. Highly recommended. * Choice Overall, there is a well-balanced mix of ethnography and theory that engages the reader throughout the volume...[The book] is successful in challenging assumptions and stereotypes surrounding men's involvement in reproduction and demonstrating that the topic of men and reproduction has been neglected by social scientific study thus far...[and] represents an important initial text on a subject deserving of further attention in the social sciences. * The Journal of Biosocial Science The chapters in this volume demonstrate the vast variety of ways men across the globe intersect with reproduction... In the Introduction, the editors highlighted the absence of men's reproductive lives from social science research. In this volume they do much to bring men back in to the reproductive spotlight. * Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology ldquo;Whilst anthropologists acknowledge men's sexuality, we tend to view men as disengaged from reproduction, and to see their power as lying elsewhere in social life. This exceptionally well edited collection of fourteen stimulating essays attempts to redress this imbalance, by analyzing men's complex, varied, and ever-changing reproductive lives...the collection offers an excellent starting-point for a potentially rewarding intellectual endeavour. * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute The book is logically structured, clearly organised and well presented. The breadth and depth of insight provided ensures that it covers all key areas of debates in relation to infertility, reproduction and the links to men and masculinities. In addition, the range of geographical regions that the studies are drawn from ensures that nuanced consideration is given to how localised cultural discourses intersect with gendered conceptualisations of reproductive techniques in a global context. * Sociology of Health and Illness ...an overdue first step in recognizing that men's role in contemporary human reproduction - from their gametes to their psyches - has been a neglected realm of scientific and scholarly pursuit. * Robert D. Nachtigall, M.D., Institute for Health and Aging, University of California, San Francisco

Author Information

Marcia C. Inhorn is William K. Lanman Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs in the Department of Anthropology and the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale University. She is also the past-president of the Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association. A specialist on infertility and assisted reproductive technologies in the Muslim Middle East, she is the author or editor of six books on the subject.

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