God's Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes

Roberts, Elizabeth F. S. F. S.

ISBN 10: 0520270835 / ISBN 13: 9780520270831

Published by University of California Press (edition First Edition), 2012

About this Item

It's a well-cared-for item that has seen limited use. The item may show minor signs of wear. All the text is legible, with all pages included. It may have slight markings and/or highlighting.

Seller Inventory # 0520270835-11-1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: God's Laboratory: Assisted Reproduction in the Andes
• Publisher: University of California Press (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520270835
• ISBN 13: 9780520270831
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

Assisted reproduction, with its test tubes, injections, and gamete donors, raises concerns about the nature of life and kinship. Yet these concerns do not take the same shape around the world. In this innovative ethnography of in vitro fertilization in Ecuador, Elizabeth F.S. Roberts explores how reproduction by way of biotechnological assistance is not only accepted but embraced despite widespread poverty and condemnation from the Catholic Church. Roberts’ intimate portrait of IVF practitioners and their patients reveals how technological intervention is folded into an Andean understanding of reproduction as always assisted, whether through kin or God. She argues that the Ecuadorian incarnation of reproductive technology is less about a national desire for modernity than it is a product of colonial racial history, Catholic practice, and kinship configurations. God’s Laboratory offers a grounded introduction to critical debates in medical anthropology and science studies, as well as a nuanced ethnography of the interplay between science, religion, race and history in the formation of Andean families.

About the Author

Elizabeth Roberts is Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Michigan, investigating scientific and public health knowledge production and its embodied effects in Latin America and the United States.