Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives is a collection of anthropological essays that study birth and authoritative knowledge across sixteen different cultures that was first published in 1998 in the Journal of Gender Studies. It "extends and enriches" anthropologist Brigitte Jordan's work in the anthropology of birth. In 2003, it won the Council on Anthropology and Reproduction book award.
This collection is edited by Robbie Davis-Floyd and Carolyn Sargent. The book opens with a foreword by Rayna Rapp and examines in detail the various patterns of birth and how they've changed over time. Not only does the book study child-bearing across cultures, it also looks into the power that biomedical technology holds in the healthcare field.
Throughout the collection of essays, the twenty-three authors use authoritative knowledge as a theme to explore the ways it is evidenced and implemented in several different cultures. The book has eighteen chapters, creating five distinct parts. Each part of the book takes a look at authoritative knowledge from a new perspective or culture. The scholars behind the essays themselves come from numerous academic backgrounds. Davis-Floyd is quoted to have said that the purpose of the book is to "act both as a useful source of information about birth across cultures and as a charter for future research and further growth in the field."
Parts of Childbirth and Authoritative Knowledge: Cross-Cultural Perspectives
Part One: "The Social Construction of Authoritative Knowledge in Childbirth" This section of essays primarily describes how technology is used in the American setting. This part of the book contains Brigitte Jordan's essay ("Authoritative Knowledge and Its Construction") along with context for the reader about the other essays in the book. Brigitte Jordan elaborates on the theme of authoritative knowledge in her book Birth in Four Cultures: A Cross cultural Investigation of Childbirth in Yucatan, Holland, Sweden and the United States. Firstly, Jordan elaborates on her idea of authoritative knowledge. She specifically defines it as follows:
"For any particular domain several knowledge systems may exist, some of which, by consensus, carry more weight than others, either because they explain the state of the world better for the purposes at hand...or because they are associated with a stronger power base."
Jordan also uses her essay to critique the hierarchical use of authoritative knowledge in a birth setting and provide context for the rest of the essays in the book. This theme is mentioned by other authors throughout the book.
Part One also contains an essay by Wenda R. Trevathan titled "An Evolutionary Perspective on Authoritative Knowledge about Birth". This essay compares the human birth process to that of the apes.
Part Two: "Intracultural Variations in Authoritative Knowledge about Birth: Biomedical Hegemony and Women's Choices" This second section of Davis-Floyd and Sargent's edited collection contains four essays. This set of papers looks at the large scale, macro-factors that effect pre-natal care and childbirth in Greece, Japan and the United States. This section of the book also examines the power dynamics that the biomedical field possesses in governing the way that women make choices.
Eugenia Georges writes that in Greece, the ultrasound plays an important role in how a Greek mother views her pregnancy. For these mothers, authoritative knowledge is perpetuated by the ultrasound machine and the way that these women rely on it. In America, giving birth is often determined by class, income and authoritative knowledge. This is the topic of Carole H. Browner and Nancy Press's essay ("The Production of Authoritative Knowledge in American Prenatal Care") as well as the essay in the following chapter "What Do Women Want? Issues of Choice, Control and Class in American Pregnancy and Childbirth" written by Ellen Lazarus. Browner and Press's essay specifically covers the role that bio-medics play in what is perceived as authoritative knowledge for a successful birth. Ellen Lazarus shows that the lack of knowledge surrounding the technology used in hospitals, especially in terms of the race and class of the patient, combined with the good intentions of all those involved also perpetuates authoritative knowledge. Lazarus elaborates on how things can go wrong despite the mother-to-be carefully selecting who will be involved in the birthing process.