Abstract

Recent literature has identified modern “parenting” as an expert-led practice—one which begins with pre-pregnancy decisions, entails distinct types of intimate relationships, places intense burdens on mothers and increasingly on fathers too. Exploring within diverse historical and global contexts how men and women make—and break—relations between generations when becoming parents, this volume brings together innovative qualitative research by anthropologists, historians, and sociologists. The chapters focus tightly on inter-generational transmission and demonstrate its importance for understanding how people become parents and rear children.

Kaveri Qureshi is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford.  She works on Pakistani and Indian diasporas as well as in Punjab. She has research interests in migration, gendered life courses, family life, and how people deal with transitions—from an episode of incapacitating illness, to the breakdown of a marriage, to becoming a mother for the first time.

Siân Pooley is a Tutorial Fellow in Modern British History at Magdalen College and an Associate Professor in the Faculty of History, University of Oxford. Her research explores the social and cultural history of Britain since 1850, especially through the experiences, relationships, and inequalities that mattered to children, men, and women. She is currently working on parenthood, children’s writing, and experiences of maltreatment in childhood.

“…this is an exemplary edited collection—it does what any edited collection should, in coming together to produce something collaborative than no scholar could achieve alone. Furthermore, it provides historians, sociologists, and other scholars a new way of thinking about generational change, continuity, and communication. Any framework such as this can be reductive and simplifying rather than instructive, but used well, as exemplified here, the nuanced nature of historical change and continuity over the individual life course and at a societal level is not lost.” · Journal of Family History

“Pooley and Qureshi’s emphasis on using reproductive cultures as the lens with which to examine family relations and the social construction of parenthood proves to be an excellent method in answering what they believe is the ‘neglected question of how parenthood is passed on’”. · Student Anthropologist

“This edited volume offers an introduction ─ an essential read in itself ─ that presents scholars with a valuable critical analytical review of the field of reproductive cultures as well as a clear mapping of the diverse range of case studies covered. This wide array of case studies, on its part, spans the globe and provides grounded, rich and captivating illustrations of the intergenerational transmission of contemporary parenthood.” · Population Ageing

"The introduction alone is both a mini-encyclopedic coverage of this entire field and a much-needed and highly cogent call for a radical programmatic expansion in the scope of research addressing child-rearing" · Simon Szreter, Cambridge University

"Focusing on the intergenerational transmission of parenthood allows the authors to provide a unique lens through which to examine the processes through which children are produced across time and space. Using a rich set of case studies that span the globe, the authors draw attention to the challenges that the production of children presents, highlighting key moments in the transmission and re-production of the practices, knowledge, ways of being, and social relations that ultimately produce a ‘proper’ person." · Cecilia Tomori, Johns Hopkins University