1. Earlier versions of three of these papers (Sobo, Rigdon and Georges) were presented in a session on Abortion from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Policy and Practice, at the 1991 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association in Chicago, Illinois. The other three papers (Renne, Johnson, Gursoy) were subsequently recruited for this collection.
2. I would like to acknowledge the valuable comments made by Lynn Morgan, in her role as discussant during the session noted above [1].
3. A Study of Abortion in Primitive Societies;Devereux,1955-1976
4. Traditional Abortion Practices;Gallen,1981
5. Menses-inducing drugs: their role in antique, medieval and renaissance gynaecology and birth control;Jöchle;Contraception,1974