CALL FOR PAPERS
“Cousin marriages and the medicalisation of spouse selection”
This call for papers employs cousin marriage as a lens through which to explore some of
the ways in which ‘new’ genetic knowledge is understood and negotiated locally in
different settings. The increasingly global discourse of genetic risk in consanguineous
marriage raises a plethora of social and anthropological questions, most centrally
concerning the impact of this discourse on traditional forms of spouse selection within
communities where cousin marriage is, or has until recently been, common. The relative
novelty of ‘genetic’ (rather than infectious) illness as a disease category demanding
public health provision globally also invites wider questions about the relationship
between scientific and local understandings of the causes of genetic disease, of
inheritance, ancestry, social hierarchy and identity, across difference cultural, social and
political contexts. We invite papers from social anthropologists and their colleagues in
other disciplines who have worked on aspects of consanguineous marriage in recent or
contemporary contexts for presentation at the Fertility and Reproduction Studies Group
(FRSG) (http://www.frsg.org/) seminars, to be held in Oxford on Mondays during
Michaelmas term (Oct-Dec) 2011. Contributors are invited to consider some of the
following questions, which are intended to be indicative rather than prescriptive, in
relation to the contexts in which they have conducted fieldwork and in the light of their
own theoretical interests:
1. How common was/is the practice of consanguineous marriages?
2. Has it increased or declined or in some other way changed over time (in
association with family size, women’s education, residence, age at marriage etc.)?
3. What is the wider social/political context of the practice (social class, profession,
tribe, ethnic identity, gender…)?
4. What are local family views on genetic risk and how does this weigh into the
balance of considerations in marriage arrangements?
5. What are local understandings of ‘genetic’ conditions?
6. What is the state policy and provision regarding genetic conditions and genetic
services in general and on the issue of elevated genetic risk with consanguineous
marriages in particular?
7. What is the state/private policy and provision regarding disability?
Abstract submission, seminar presentations and publication
The deadline for abstracts is Friday 15th April 2011. We will then select and invite full
papers for presentation at the FRSG seminars in Oxford in Michaelmas Term (Oct.-Dec.)
2011. Alison Shaw and Philip Kreager will convene the seminars. Limited funds are
available to assist travel and accommodation for some participants. We have also
discussed with Berghahn Books the possibility of a book, edited by Alison Shaw and
Aviad Raz, arising from the seminars. At the end of the seminar series we will finalise
plans for the book. Further details of the background and rationale for the project are
available on request.
Please send abstracts and any other enquiries to:
alison.shaw@dphpc.ox.ac.uk; aviadraz@bgu.ac.il
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Dr. Alison Shaw
Senior Research Fellow, Department of Public Health
Research Associate, Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies
University of Oxford,
3 George Street,
Oxford, ENGLAND OX12AR
Professor Aviad E. Raz, Ph.D.
Director, Behavioral Sciences Program
Professor of Organizational and Medical Sociology
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Be'er-Sheva, ISRAEL 84105
Dr. Philip Kreager
Director, Fertility and Reproductive Studies Group
Research Associate, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology,
University of Oxford University
51 Banbury Road,
Oxford, ENGLAND OX2 6PE.
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