Imaginaries of a laparoscope: power, convenience, and sterilization in rural India

Anthropol Med. 2023 Jan 16:1-17. doi: 10.1080/13648470.2022.2152634. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTLaparoscopic tubal ligation is the most prevalent method of contraception amongst India's rural and urban poor. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in rural Rajasthan in 2012-2013, this paper investigates how rural women's perceptions of a biomedical instrument-the laparoscope-influence their perceptions of sterilization, a procedure often entrenched in coercive, target- and incentive-driven population control programme. By investigating how a laparoscope is entangled in global exchanges, national policies, institutional arrangements, and local moral worlds, this paper demonstrates that while wider biomedical discourses perpetuate the narrative of safety and convenience, people's everyday lives inform their understandings of technology that is widely known but rarely seen.PMID:36645045 | DOI:10.1080/13648470.2022.2152634

Source: Anthropology and Medicine - January 16, 2023 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Eva Fiks Source Type: research