TECHNOLOGY, HEALTH, AND GENDER

The study of material culture and materiality in 21st-century anthropology has benefitted from new ethnographic work and from drawing on the work of scholars writing from outside the discipline. Key among the disciplinary fields that anthropologists access in reworking theoretical approaches and frameworks of analysis are gender studies and STS (Science and Technology Studies), including landmark contributions from feminist scholars. This chapter provides a brief overview of this through a discussion of the anthropological study of technology, gender, and health. It contemplates the manner in which feminist approaches inflect research and analysis by their attention to the dynamics of power and explores contemporary issues and debates in this sub-area through discussion of Brazilian ethnography. In particular, it delves into the discursive framing of technology usage, its practical application, and the day-to-day micropolitics surrounding it in reproductive healthcare and in medical education about reproductive health.