Irons, R; (2019) (Re) producing Peruvian professionals: social assistance and maternal citizenship of impoverished Quechua mothers. Anthropologica , 37 (43) pp. 227-253. 10.18800/anthropologica.201902.010.

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Abstract

Through the discourses of financial independence and "professionalization" of the offspring promoted by the medical (SIS) and social (Juntos) assistance provided by the State, Quechua women living in poverty discover that, upon entering motherhood, their full citizenship becomes conditional on successful behaviors and the stewardship of children to obtain a more "desirable" livelihood than their own. This suggests that motherhood, while poor, gives a moral value to women that the state uses to justify its monitoring and governance. This article is based on a year of ethnographic fieldwork in rural communities and health centers or posts in the province of Vilcashuamán, department of Ayacucho, Peru. One hundred interviews were conducted with women, men, and health workers, in addition to an important participant observation. While widespread discourses overload women's freedoms, there are alternatives to the "professionalization" of indigenous youth that do not require the financial education currently imposed on mothers. This paper suggests that the moral values ​​assigned to poor maternity homes are sometimes unfairly used as justification for reproductive intervention and the revocation of full citizenship for poor indigenous women.

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