Kristen A. Quiggle
Anthropology 316
Exam 3
April 14, 2019
1.
The women of Bom Jesus were a product of their environment.
They had many
children due to religious, economic, and cultural reasons.
Bom Jesus, stricken with poverty,
has a very high fertility rate and a very high infant mortality rate (Scheper-Hughes, 273).
In Catholic Bom Jesus, Brazil, women had a duty to “cooperate with God and nature;”
it was a woman’s duty to procreate (Scherper-Hughes, 337). 85% of the population of Brazil
considers itself Catholic (Scherper-Hughes, 330). Therefore, Catholic “morality” guided the
reproductive choices of the Bom Jesus women. They were to uphold Catholicism’s strict
rules against abortion and birth control (Scherper-Hughes, 333).
They were to have the ideal
family size of three to four children. In a response to infant mortality, they became pregnant
again and again, replacing their lost child(ren) (Scherper-Hughes, 331). Due to poverty,
women were often pregnant ten to eleven times in an effort to achieve the “ideal” Catholic
family (Scherper-Hughes, 330-331).
Women in Bom Jesus did not have access to adequate health care or family planning
(Scheper-Hughes, 281). Medical services were expensive and beyond the reach of a woman
who couldn’t afford to feed herself or her children (Scherper-Hughes, 336-337). Birth control
was considered dangerous and a cultural taboo.
Much of the population believed that birth
control pills would cause cancer, swelling, headaches, nausea, and extreme nervousness
(Scherper-Hughes, 333). Condoms were only worn by men when frequenting a prostitute, not
when engaging in sex with their wives. Diaphragms were not known or available in stores
