The Womb, Infertility, and the Vicissitudes of Kin-Relatedness in Vietnam

Abstract

This article explores the significance of the womb as an organizing principle for relatedness in Vietnam. It argues that contemporary individual and collective responses to in vitro fertilization bring into sharp relief the enduring importance of gestation and the mother-child bond for kinship formation. The author traces the womb as a site for determining maternal relatedness in contemporary assisted reproduction policy through cultural beliefs about gestation, popular legend, and contemporary and historical forms of polygamy and surrogacy, drawing attention to the continuities between past and current practices surrounding infertility and indigenous solutions to the challenges infertility poses in forming kin-relatedness.