Research Catalog

Developing destinies : a Mayan midwife and town

Title: Developing destinies : a Mayan midwife and town / Barbara Rogoff ; with Chona Pérez González, Chonita Chavajay Quiacaín, and Josué Chavajay Quiacaín.
Author: Rogoff, Barbara.
Publication: New York : Oxford University Press, ©2011.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	RG950 .R64 2011	Off-site

Details

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Description

x, 343 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"Born with the destiny of becoming a Mayan sacred midwife, Chona Pérez has carried on centuries-old traditional Indigenous American birth and healing practices over her 85 years. At the same time, Chona developed new approaches to the care of pregnancy, newborns, and mothers based on her own experience and ideas. In this way, Chona has contributed to both the cultural continuities and cultural changes of her town over the decades. In Developing Destinies, Barbara Rogoff illuminates how individuals worldwide build on cultural heritage from prior generations and at the same time create new ways of living. Throughout Chona's lifetime, her Guatemalan town has continued to use longstanding Mayan cultural practices, such as including children in a range of community activities and encouraging them to learn by observing and contributing. But the town has also transformed dramatically since the days of Chona's own childhood. For instance, although Chona's upbringing included no formal schooling, some of her grandchildren have gone on to attend university and earn scholarly degrees. The lives of Chona and her town provide extraordinary examples of how cultural practices are preserved even as they are adapted and modified. Developing Destinies is an engaging narrative of one remarkable person's life and the life of her community that blends psychology, anthropology, and history to reveal the integral role that culture plays in human development. With extensive photographs and accounts of Mayan family life, medical practices, birth, child development, and learning, Rogoff adeptly shows that we can better understand the role of culture in our lives by examining how people participate in cultural practices. This landmark book brings theory alive with fascinating ethnographic findings that advance our understanding of childhood, culture, and change."--Jacket

Series Statement

Child development in cultural context

Uniform Title

Child development in cultural context.

Subject

Genre/Form

Biography
collective biographies.
Biographies.
Biografie

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Beginnings : stability and change -- Living culture, across generations -- Meeting Chona and San Pedro -- Paper with a mouth, recounting the developing destinies of an iyoom and her community -- Born to a spiritual calling, across generations : cultural heritage and resistance -- Childhood and where babies come from -- A becoming young woman -- Changing memories in changing practices -- Entry and prominence in a sacred profession -- Ripples across generations and nations in Mayan pregnancy and childbirth -- Ripples across generations and nations in birth destinies and postnatal care -- Ways of learning across times and places -- Traditions and transformations.

ISBN

9780195319903
0195319907

LCCN

2010033356

OCLC

ocn655618234
655618234
SCSB-1596084

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library