The Uruguayan Journal of Anthropology and Ethnography is now accepting submissions for its dossier, open-topic articles (within the journal’s scope), and reviews for Volume 10, Issue 2, 2025. The submission deadline is April 1, 2025.
Dossier: Human Breastfeeding, Care and Intersectionality.
This dossier invites the submission of articles that critically explore the various dimensions of breastfeeding and care from an intersectional perspective. Focusing on human breastfeeding and its associated processes, we are seeking works that analyze how care is socially distributed, managed, regulated, and experienced, particularly in light of intersectionalities such as gender, ethnicity-race, class, disability, territory, and other social markers of difference. The goal is to investigate how parenthood, breastfeeding, and early childhood care, in their various forms, are socially organized and how public policies, medical discourses, and health campaigns interact with daily practices.
The dossier seeks contributions derived from research, primarily ethnographic, that reveal the nuances and contradictions of breastfeeding and caregiving experiences. Examples of potential topics include studies on the experiences of individuals breastfeeding and caring for young children in diverse contexts, the challenges faced by those breastfeeding as they balance multiple social and familial roles, or analyses of how health policies shape class, race, and other inequalities. The aim is to foster a comprehensive debate on early childhood care and breastfeeding, highlighting not only the challenges of breastfeeding but also realities that often escape the ideals and regulations associated with these processes.
In this context, we particularly welcome studies that, based on new theoretical, methodological, and ethnographic approaches, align with the following themes:
Public Policies and Regulations: Contributions that analyze how public policies and government regulations influence breastfeeding and childcare practices, particularly in contexts of social inequality. Articles exploring how such policies reflect or challenge gender norms and other social constructs, and how they impact relationships between users and healthcare professionals.
Medical-Scientific Relationships: Studies investigating the role of medical and scientific knowledge in establishing norms and guidelines on breastfeeding and early childhood care. Contributions that explore interactions between healthcare professionals and lactating individuals, analyzing tensions between different knowledge systems and how care practices are shaped or questioned by scientific discourses.
Dissident Breastfeeding and Care Experiences: Research documenting and analyzing breastfeeding and care experiences that do not align with hegemonic models, such as those experienced by LGBTQIA+ families, trans individuals, single mothers, migrants, people with disabilities, and others. Articles discussing the challenges and strategies employed by these families to navigate social and healthcare standards that often fail to account for their realities.
Ethnographic Studies on Breastfeeding and Care: Contributions based on ethnographic research offering detailed and contextualized insights into breastfeeding and care experiences across various cultures and social settings. Works that highlight the nuances and contradictions of the daily lives of those who breastfeed and care for young children, emphasizing specific contextual factors.
Communication Models: Studies analyzing how communication and public discourses on breastfeeding and care are constructed, disseminated, and received by society. Articles investigating public health campaigns, media networks, advertising, and other forms of communication that shape perceptions and practices of breastfeeding and care, addressing the impacts of these communication models on different social groups.
Intersectionality and Social Markers of Difference: Contributions discussing the impact of intersecting factors (ethnicity-race, gender, class, disability, migration, among others) on breastfeeding and childcare practices. Studies examining how these social markers affect individuals who breastfeed and care for children in terms of access to services, health policies, and exercising rights.
Kinship and Motherhood: Research exploring diverse configurations of motherhood and caregiving, including those that challenge biogenetic notions of mother-child bonds. Articles analyzing adoptive parenthood, parenthood through assisted reproductive technologies, blended families, and other forms of caregiving relationships that challenge traditional motherhood regulations.
Dossier Editors:
Dr. Valentina Brena, Department of Social Anthropology, FHCE, UDELAR.
Dr. Natália Fazzion, Center of Gender Studies, PAGU, UNICAMP.
Dr. Marina Nucci, Institute of Social Medicine, UERJ.
Originally published in the Uruguayan Journal of Anthropology and Ethnography. Visit the journal’s website for more information.