Introduction. Health promotion reconsidered -- Health behavior in context -- Culture and the individual -- The household production of health -- Grasping the elusive -- Vulnerability and protection. Errachidia. Town and province -- Politics of economic development -- Health care -- Social diversity -- Research design. Maternal-child health in perspective. The politics of home birth -- Saharan constructions of danger -- Humoral imbalance -- The eye -- Spirit attack -- Magical curses -- Microbes. The aesthetics of Saharan domestic life. The lived meaning of health -- Interiority -- Unity -- Balance -- Purity -- Discord and change. Vulnerability and security. Vulnerability as embodied experience -- Variations in the context of transition -- Embodied structures of vulnerability and security -- Openness and enclosure -- Isolation and unity -- Imbalance and equilibrium -- Defilement and purification -- The aesthetic underpinnings of vulnerability management. Naima's pregnancy. Pregnancy customs -- Pregnant and divorced -- Intersections of health behavior and vulnerability management. The birth of Fatiha's son. Childbirth customs -- Fatiha's hospital birth -- Post-partum complications -- Lalla Kabira's stolen breastmilk. Breastfeeding customs -- Lalla Kabira's trouble with stolen milk -- Good milk and bad milk. Conclusion : embodied knowledge-in-action. Elements of vulnerability in Saharan culture -- Saharan principles of health practice -- Mechanisms of embodying cultural knowledge -- Cultural aesthetics and historic change -- Applications of embodied vulnerability in a risk society -- Recommendations for future research.