Ignaciuk Agata, Kelly Laura
Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of History, University of Warsaw, Poland Email:
School of Humanities, University of Strathclyde, Level 4, Lord Hope Building, 141 St James Road, Glasgow G4 0LT, UK Email:
Med Hist. 2020 Apr;64(2):163-172. doi: 10.1017/mdh.2020.1.
This special issue uses Catholicism as a thread to bring together five contributions to the transnational history of contraception. The articles, which cover examples from Western and East-Central Europe, East Africa and Latin America, all explore the complex interplay between users and providers of birth control in contexts marked by prevalence of the Catholic religion and/or strong political position of the Catholic Church. In the countries examined here, Brazil, Belgium, Poland, Ireland and Rwanda, Catholicism was the majority religion during the different moments of the long twentieth century the authors of this special issue focus on. Using transnationalism as a perspective to examine the social history of the entanglements between Catholicism and contraception, this special issue seeks to underscore the ways in which individuals and organisations used, adapted and contested local and transnational ideas and debate around family planning. It also examines the role of experts and activist groups in the promotion of family planning, while paying attention to national nuances in Catholic understandings of birth control. The contributions shed light on the motivations behind involvement in birth control activism and expertise, its modus operandi, networking strategies and interactions with men and women demanding contraceptive information and technology. Moreover, through the use of oral history, as well as other print sources such as women's magazines, this collection of articles seeks to illustrate 'ordinary' men and women's practices in the realm of reproductive health.
本期特刊以天主教为线索，汇集了五篇关于避孕跨国史的文章。这些文章涵盖了西欧、中东欧、东非和拉丁美洲的例子，均探讨了在天主教盛行和/或天主教会拥有强大政治地位的背景下，节育使用者与提供者之间复杂的相互作用。在本期特刊作者所关注的漫长20世纪的不同时期，这里所考察的巴西、比利时、波兰、爱尔兰和卢旺达等国家，天主教都是主要宗教。以跨国主义为视角来审视天主教与避孕之间纠葛的社会史，本期特刊旨在强调个人和组织运用、调整并质疑围绕计划生育的本土及跨国观念与辩论的方式。它还考察了专家和激进组织在推广计划生育方面的作用，同时关注天主教对节育理解中的国家差异。这些文章揭示了参与节育行动主义和专业知识背后的动机、其运作方式、网络策略以及与寻求避孕信息和技术的男性和女性之间的互动。此外，通过运用口述历史以及女性杂志等其他印刷资料，这组文章力图展现“普通”男女在生殖健康领域的实践。
