{"product_id":"moral-figures-making-reproduction-public-in-vanuatu-hardback-9781487543204","title":"Moral Figures; Making Reproduction Public in Vanuatu (Hardback) 9781487543204","description":"\u003cfont face=\"Georgia\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"6\"\u003eMoral Figures\u003c\/font\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\r\n\u003cfont size=\"5\"\u003eMaking Reproduction Public in Vanuatu\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"4\"\u003eAlexandra Widmer (Author)\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e9781487543204\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eHardback, published 8 February 2023\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e262 pages, 8 b\u0026amp;w illustrations, 4 b\u0026amp;w maps, 4 b\u0026amp;w figures, 2 b\u0026amp;w tables\u003cbr\u003e22.9 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.48 kg\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003cp align=\"justify\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the early twentieth century, people in the southwestern Pacific nation of Vanuatu experienced rapid population decline, while in the early twenty-first century, they experienced rapid population growth. From colonial governance to postcolonial sovereignty, \u003ci\u003eMoral Figures\u003c\/i\u003e shows that despite attempts to govern population size and birth, reproduction in Vanuatu continues to exceed bureaucratic economization through Ni-Vanuatu insistence on Indigenous relationalities.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThrough her examination of how reproduction is made public, Alexandra Widmer demonstrates how population sciences have naturalized a focus on women\u0026amp;#x2019;s fertility and privileged issues of wage labour over women\u0026amp;#x2019;s land access and broader social relations of reproduction. Widmer draws on oral histories with retired village midwives and massage healers on the changes to care for pregnancy and birth, as well as ethnographic research in a village outside the capital of Port Vila. Locating the Pacific Islands in global histories of demographic science and the medicalization of birth, the book presents archival material in a way that emphasizes bureaucratic practices in how colonial documents attempted to render Indigenous relationalities of reproduction governable.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhile demographic imaginaries and biomedical practices increasingly frame fertility control as an investment in the reproductive health of individual bodies, the Ni-Vanuatu worlds presented in \u003ci\u003eMoral Figures\u003c\/i\u003e show that relationships between people, land, knowledge, kin, and care make reproduction a distributed and assisted process.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cfont size=\"3\"\u003eList of Illustrations\u003cbr\u003eMap of the Pacific Ocean and Vanuatu \u003cbr\u003eMap of South Efate\u003cbr\u003eMap of Port Vila\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments\u003cbr\u003ePreface\u003cbr\u003eIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e1. \"The Shortage of Women Is the Cause of These Courts\": Imbalanced Sex Ratios, Native Courts, and Marriage Disputes Made Public, 1910–1950\u003cbr\u003e2. \"The Nurses Looked Out for Us!\": Hospital Births, Relational Infrastructures, and Public Concerns, 1950–1970\u003cbr\u003e3. \"It Will Help Planning for the Future\": Making Men\u0026amp;#x2019;s and Women\u0026amp;#x2019;s \"Subsistence\" Public Knowledge in the First Census, 1966–1967\u003cbr\u003e4. \"I Just Wanted to Be Invisible\": \"Young Mothers\" from Global Discourse to Village Experience, 2010–2020 \u003cbr\u003e5. \"Well-Being for Melanesia\": Alternative Indicators, Massage Healers, and Reciprocal Relationships, 2010–2020\u003cbr\u003eEpilogue: Relations of Reproduction and Survival in the Anthropocene \u003cbr\u003eAppendix 1: Population Size from 1850 to 2020\u003cbr\u003eAppendix 2: Overview of Biomedical Health Services in Vanuatu in 1954\u003cbr\u003eWorks Cited\u003c\/font\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u003c\/font\u003e","brand":"University of Toronto Press","offers":[{"title":"Brand New","offer_id":52595787464984,"sku":"9781487543204","price":39.79,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/freshlyprintedbooks.co.uk\/products\/moral-figures-making-reproduction-public-in-vanuatu-hardback-9781487543204","provider":"Freshly Printed Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}