Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Bold and gripping,
Godand#8217;s Laboratory is ethnography at its best. The bookand#8217;s unforgettable characters and their desperate travails to reproduce via global medicine are the very fabric of a highly-original and much-needed social theory for our twenty-first century technological societies.and#8221; - Joand#227;o Biehl, author of
Vita: Life in a Zone of Social Abandonment"Godand#8217;s Laboratory is the perfect anthropological antidote to the fetishization of reproductive materials as 'life itself.' Roberts shows in meticulous detail and in luminous prose how Catholic scientists and technicians in Ecuador invite God into private IVF labs to and#145;bless the workand#8217; of producing embryos. Kinship, care, and cultivation -- not embryonic life -- define reproduction in this uncertain world." - Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil
and#147;Written with clarity, compassion, and self-reflection, God's Laboratory is a beautiful book which puts the ethnographic method to excellent use. Roberts's painstaking fieldwork unearthed the many layers through which the aspirations for fertility and use of infertility technologies instantiate not only gender and kinship in Ecuador, but ethnicity, race and region in the national project of modernity. The book is a stunning instance of the benefits which accrue when the study of reproduction is used as an optic for understanding social life.and#8221; - Rayna Rapp, author of Testing Women, Testing the Fetus: The Social Impact of Amniocentesis in America
and#147;Godand#8217;s Laboratory is a strong, intriguing and careful look at the daily connections between faith and science that underpin the process of human assisted reproduction in urban Ecuador." -Marisol de la Cadena, author of Indigenous Mestizos: The Politics of Race and Culture in Cuzco, Peru, 1910-1991
Review
"The book is an important contribution to the anthropology of reproduction and Latin American studies, among other fields."
Synopsis
Assisted reproduction, with its test tubes, injections, and gamete donors, often raises important concerns regarding matters of life and kinship. Yet these concerns do not take the same form everywhere around the world. In this innovative ethnography of in vitro fertilization in Ecuador, Elizabeth Roberts shows how having children through biotechnological intervention is not only tolerated, it is embraced by the population, despite widespread poverty and official condemnation by the Catholic Church. Roberts takes us into clinics, laboratories, and homes, providing a textured picture of the integration of these biotechnologies into Andean life. Intimate portraits of patients, donors, and practitioners reveal profoundly different understandings of nature and the self compared with those found in other countries. Andean understanding of the body as malleable resonates with cutting-edge theories of the material world put forth by contemporary scholars of science and technology. The Ecuadorian embrace of reproductive technology, however, is less a reflection of a desire to be "modern", than it is a product of colonial racial history, Catholic theologies, and kinship systems. This clearly written account offers a grounded introduction to debates in science studies and medical anthropology, as well as nuanced ethnography of the mingling of science, religion, and history in Andean family life.
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. Robertsand#8217; 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. Godand#8217;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 Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of Michigan.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Cast of Characters
Preface
Introduction: Reproductive Assistance
Corporeal Punishment: Sandra
1. Private Medicine and the Law of Life
Crazy for Bingo: Consuelo
2. Assisted Whiteness
Yo Soy Teresa la Fea/Ugly Teresa
3. White Beauty: Gamete Donation in a Mestizo Nation
When Blood Calls: Frida and Anabela
4. Egg Economies and the Traffic between Women
Abandonment: Vanessa
5. On Ice: Embryo Destinies
Conclusion: Care-Worthy
Notes
References
Index