Belaboured Lives: An Ethnography of Muslim Women's Pregnancy and Childbirth Practices in Pakistan's Northern Areas

My doctoral thesis, “Belaboured Lives,” examines the relationship between Sunni Muslim women’s reproductive and maternal health practices, Islamic conservatism, federal and non-governmental health programming, intense Shia-Sunni conflict, interpersonal enmity and ‘occult’ forces in Gilgit Town, economic and administrative capital of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous, federally neglected and multi-sectarian Northern Areas. Over 14 months between 2004 and 2005, my doctoral ethnographic fieldwork involved research interviews and participant-observation among Sunni women and Gilgit Town’s biomedical, traditional and Islamic therapeutic service providers, as well as in household, community, mosque and clinical-settings. With Gilgit District’s maternal morbidity and mortality rate (MMR) being among the highest in Pakistan, my thesis argues that Gilgiti Sunni women’s reproductive and maternal health outcomes were the product of restrictive, inter-linked or mutually interacting structural and ideological forces, which were socio-economic, political, familial and religious in nature. By providing an ethnography not only of women’s home-centered health practices but also their in-clinic experiences, I address the wide array of physical, symbolic and cosmological threats women perceived as being interwoven with their fertility, pregnancy and childbirth-related health. To different degrees and in different ways, women, their families and health providers described how the socio-spatial constraints associated with Islamic pardah (veiling, gender seclusion) and izzat (honour) paradigms, conflict-related service exclusions, iatrogenic risk and hospital funding insufficiencies, ‘black magic’ and spirit ‘attacks’ were contributory factors to women’s poor health outcomes. But my participants’ reproductive health was not only the arena for wellness-seeking and crisis resolution, but also for the enactment and expression of cultural values and sectarian identity; the tension between doctrinal Islam and local interpretations, modern/traditional divides; Sunni militarism, symbolic and structural violence. Moreover, Gilgiti Sunni women’s reproductive and maternal health narratives demonstrated subjectivity, inter-subjectivity and reflexivity, resistance and negotiation, and gendered and reproductive agency. Within this context, any one pregnancy could evidence and communicate multiple domains of experience, as well as patient-provider interaction, access to care, its quality and relation to socio-economic factors, ideological stance or community-bound interpersonal relations. Ultimately, by using pregnancy and childbirth as a central point of inquiry, my thesis examines different aspects of Gilgiti Sunni women’s health experiences: biomedical and traditional; urban and rural childbirth and post-partum practices; Family Planning, fertility and infertility, unwanted pregnancies and abortions; conflict-related constraints, medical malpractice and cosmological harm.Ph

A study of William Van Mildert, Bishop of Durham, and the High Church movement of the early nineteenth centruy

2 volsSIGLEAvailable from British Library Lending Division - LD:D56151/85 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Abundance and survival of a seed-infesting weevil, Pseudanthonomus hamamelidis (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), on its variable-fruiting host plant, witch-hazel ( Hamamelis virginiana )

1. The relative importance of seed abundance and of mortality factors in the population biology of Pseudanthonomus hamamelidis , a hostspecific predispersal seed predator on Hamamelis virginiana , is evaluated by analysis of weevil life tables and abundance estimates in three years with markedly different magnitudes of fruit production. 2. Fruit production of marked Hamamelis individuals averaged 336 m -2 in 1978, increased three- to four-fold in 1979, and declined again in 1980. More individuals fruited in 1979 than in the other two years. 3. The early larval stage of P.hamamelidis incurred the greatest mortality, with 42–58% dying from often undeterminable causes. Losses in the egg stage ranged from 22% to 31%. Three parasitoid species each accounted for minor mortality. Generation survival was similar in all three years, ranging from 21% to 28%. 4. The percentage of Hamamelis fruit crops infested by P.hamamelidis was high in 1978, averaging 76%, but was much lower in 1979, the year of abundant fruit. In 1980, when fruit were less abundant again, infestation was nearly complete. Egg densities on fruits were lower in 1979 than in the other two years. 5. The fluctuating fruit crops of Hamamelis are responsible for limitation of P.hamamelidis numbers during poor fruiting years. The occasional highly productive fruiting year results in satiation of weevil populations and concomitant seed escape by Hamamelis . Mortality factors appear less important in influencing weevil population dynamics.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/71454/1/j.1365-2311.1981.tb00629.x.pd

Fator chave para Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, 1818 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) em cultura de soja, para o estado de São Paulo Key factor for Anticarsia gemmatalis Hübner, 1818 (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in soybean fields in the state of São Paulo

Estudou-se a biologia e a flutuação de Anticarsia gemmatalis em campos de soja com o objetivo de construir tabelas de vida ecológica visando determinar o estágio e o fator chave. Os experimentos foram conduzidos durante os períodos agrícolas de 1992 a 1997. Em cada ano foram realizados dois estudos biológicos. Simultaneamente durante o ciclo da soja, nos seis anos estudados, foram realizadas amostragens para determinar a flutuação natural de ovos e de lagartas de A. gemmatalis. De posse desses dados foram construídas tabelas de vida ecológica, tendo-se observado que a taxa líquida de reprodução da espécie aumentou de 2,9 a 7,5 vezes em relação a população inicial, sendo que, para a tabela construída com a média dos dados, esse valor subiu para 15,5 vezes. O tempo médio de duração nas gerações variou de 33,5 a 40,2 dias, com média de 37,9 dias, acarretando uma sobrevivência, por geração entre 1,2 a 3,2%, porém, na média, esta subiu para 6,6%. O estágio chave da população não pôde ser determinado com precisão devido aos baixos valores de R2 obtidos mas, o fator chave, responsável pela mortalidade da população, foi a fertilidade real de fêmeas.<br>The biology and fluctuation of Anticarsia gemmatalis was studied in soybean fields to determine the key stage and factor. Experiments were conducted from 1992 through 1997. Two biological studies were performed each year. In each season, the natural occurrence of eggs and larvae were determined, which allowed the construction of ecological life tables. The net reproduction rate of the species was observed to increase 2.9-to 7.5-fold in relation to the initial population, but the increse was estimated as 15.5-fold for the life table constructed from the averages of annual values. Mean duration time for progenies varied from 33.5 to 40.2 days (mean of 37.9), leading to an average survival per generation between 1.2 and 3.2% (mean of 6.6). The key stage of the population was not determined due the observed low R2. The key factor accounting for population mortality was the fertility of females