Passion

How birth is represented x-culturally is a passion of mine. I also find it interesting how discourse of birthing and breastfeeding evoke such emotion from so many, whether it's a debate on the timeless pro-life/pro-choice, or some rant about a woman breastfeeding in public or prenatal care.

The Issues I'd like to delve into are centered on the idea of interpersonal boundaries, physical & mental. One thread of exploration is the act of crossing the "bubble", the physical boarder that allows a space of autonomy, a buffer zone, between persons. I've found that when one becomes pregnant, people have no problem rubbing and touching the pregnant woman's stomach, the area of the body that is usually very personal. A second thread is crossing the line of cultural appropriateness during pregnancy. What I mean is when a person conducts herself not in accordance with what is "normal" for her culture. For example, the ingestion of drugs, the use of alcohol, or smoking cigarettes while pregnant. And, thus the reaction this causes by surrounding adults. Some questions that come to mind are; what are the culturally constructed rules that exist in other cultures, and how do women negotiate these rules x-culturally? I hope to find some insight by talking to women about their pregnancy care, beliefs about personal conduct while pregnant, and their experiences giving birth.

Okay, so the paragraphs above read like a bunch of wooden sentences! Here's the scoop. This is what I hope to do while hanging with my family in Rio Branco, Brazil; talk to some really nice women about childbirth...

(to see these stories).

Personal

Okay, so personally what do I think about moving to another country with two small children? Hey, it will be just like living in Charlottesville, except no one will speak English…right? To tell you the truth I’m not sure what to think. I’m a bit scared, a whole lot of excited and a little apprehensive. But I’ve always been one to confront change head on. I think my biggest fear is the traveling. LAX to Chicago , 10 hours down to Sao Paulo, from Sao Paulo another 10 hour flight up and over to Rio Branco. All with a lap baby and toddler, and oh yea, my hubby too.

Reason

So, why exactly are we moving to Brazil? Well, my husband Matthew (view his blog) will be conducting his PhD fieldwork among the founding religious group Alto Santo. From the many ear-bending conversaions that we've had, I have gleaned that this church, founded in the 1930s during the collaspe of the rubber industry, is a unique religon that borrows aspects from Catholism and uses an indigious amazonian brew called Ayahuasca (aka yage, daime, or vegetal). From what I understand, Matthew's project deals with the cultural politics surrounding the church's struggle to maintain its authority and authenticity among the splinter churches that have sprung up. All this very intriguing and I can't wait to hear what he finds out while there.

Purpose

The main purpose for this blog is to keep me sane while I move with my family to the Amazonian city Rio Brano. Now, Rio Branco isn't quite what one might envision when thinking of an "Amazon city". You might picture jungle thickets, grass huts, and naked indigenous people digging for tubers. Not exactly! Rio Branco is a bustling city of almost 300 thousand boarding Bolivia and the Peruvian Andes. The trick for me is to figure out how to acclimate myself, our 2& 1/2-year-old and 4 month old daughters to a foreign country. I feel a bit anxious, not knowing which vaccines to get them, how old the children need to be to receive the needed shots, and what will the water be like? Potable? I'm sure they will have bottled water at a fair price…hopefully! Today the real (pronounced ree-al) exchange rate is 2.28 to 1 US dollar... Not bad, we should be able live comfortably on the grant money and the various other contributions we have secured. Six more weeks here in Charlottesville, Virginia, then four weeks in California before jetting off to Sao Paulo where we will stay for couple of days before flying into the upper north-west region of the Amazon.