1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The primary objective of this study is to determine the nature and impact of epistemological accommodation between traditional Inuit childbirth and biomedicine by studying the history of Inuit interaction with the biomedical system.» (p. 111)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«This leads to two research questions: First, what does traditional childbirth mean to the Inuit and how has it changed since contact? Second, how have Inuit society and epistemology reacted to southern biomedicine and governmental authority and adapted in response to their influence?» (p. 111)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
Données documentaires diverses

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«The Inuulitsivik Maternities : culturally appropriate midwifery and epistemological accommodation This is a literature-based historical analysis that uses Michel Foucault’s technique of tracing epistemological change over time to understand the epistemological changes and their outcomes that have occurred in Nunavik, the Inuit region of Northern Quebec, with the introduction of modern techniques and technology of childbirth in the period after the Second World War. Beginning in 1986, in the village of Puvurnituq, a series of community birthing centres known as the Inuulitsivik Maternities have been created. They incorporate biomedical techniques and technology, but are incorporated into the Inuit epistemology of health, in which the community is the final arbitrator of medical authority. This epistemological accommodation between modern biomedicine and the distinctly premodern Inuit epistemology of health has led to the creation of a new and profoundly non-modern approach to childbirth in Nunavik.» (p. 111)