Consuming Motherhood

Rating:
Summary: Interesting, if academic, analysis of motherhood
Review: The collection of essays in "Consuming Motherhood" is the offspring of a panel entitled "Kinship and Consumption," that the editors co-organized for the 1998 annual meeting of the American Anthropological Association. The collected essays are all loosely organized around the central theme of motherhood and that of consumption and commodification. The editors readily admit that an analysis of the interdependent relationship between consumption and motherhood seems a bit trite, and move beyond such simple inquiry and ask, "How do motherhood and consumption-as ideologies and as patterns of social action-mutually shape and constitute each other in contemporary North American and European social life? How can we, instead of oscillating between motherhood and consumption as ways of understanding what we see, hold them both in focus together? Or to put it another way, how can we really hope to understand either motherhood or consumption without considering how they are in fact imbricated in social life?"(2) Answers to such questions will obviously be influenced by Karl Marx's theories of commodification and consumption, but a lack of understanding in regards to Marx's finer points will not prevent anyone from being able to understand the questions posed throughout the various essays. There is no clearly defined organization of the essays in "Consuming Motherhood" and this might prove frustrating for the more fastidious reader. Some essays focus on commodification, whereas others focus on consumption; however, this should not deter anyone from fully engaging in the essays. In "Sonographers and the Public Fetus", Janelle S. Taylor offers an astute analysis of fetal sonography. Taylor's essays seems even more compelling when one takes into consideration the growing popularity of successful commercial sonography studios, that offer expectant parents 3-D "pictures" of their babies in-utero, more often than not for a high premium. Other essays focus on the role consumption plays during and after pregnancy loss, the commodification of midwifery, the clash between consumer culture and mothers of disabled children, and the choices that are made throughout the adoption process. Overall, "Consuming Motherhood" will prove to be an interesting, if academic, read for those interested in anthropology, ethnography, and general women's studies.