Placental politics : CHamoru women, white womanhood, and indigeneity under U.S. colonialism in Guam / Christine Taitano DeLisle.

Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2021]

xxii, 297 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

"From 1898 until World War II, U.S. imperial expansion brought significant numbers of white American women to Guam, primarily as wives to naval officers stationed on the island. Indigenous CHamoru women engaged with navy wives in a range of settings, and they used their relationships with American women to forge new forms of social and political power. As Christine Taitano DeLisle explains, much of the interaction between these women occurred in the realms of health care, midwifery, child care, and education. DeLisle focuses specifically on the 'pattera', Indigenous nurse-midwives who served CHamoru families. Though they showed strong interest in modern delivery practices and other accoutrements of American modernity under U.S. naval hegemony, the pattera and other CHamoru women never abandoned deeply held Indigenous beliefs, values, and practices, especially those associated with 'inafa'maolek'--a code of behavior through which individual, collective, and environmental balance, harmony, and well-being were stewarded and maintained"-- Provided by publisher.

CHamoru women, white womanhood, and indigeneity under U.S. colonialism in Guam

English

May 04, 2022

Includes bibliographical references and index.