Surgery and Salvation
In this sweeping history of reproductive surgery in Mexico, Elizabeth O'Brien traces the interstices of religion, reproduction, and obstetric racism from the end of the Spanish empire through the post-revolutionary 1930s. Examining medical ideas about operations (including cesarean section, abortion...
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| Format: | Online |
| Jezik: | engleski |
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The University of North Carolina Press
2026
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| Online pristup: | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110000 |
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| _version_ | 1869518549376040960 |
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| author | O'Brien, Elizabeth |
| author_browse | O'Brien, Elizabeth |
| author_facet | O'Brien, Elizabeth |
| author_sort | O'Brien, Elizabeth |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | In this sweeping history of reproductive surgery in Mexico, Elizabeth O'Brien traces the interstices of religion, reproduction, and obstetric racism from the end of the Spanish empire through the post-revolutionary 1930s. Examining medical ideas about operations (including cesarean section, abortion, hysterectomy, and eugenic sterilization), Catholic theology, and notions of modernity and identity, O'Brien argues that present-day claims about fetal personhood are rooted in the use of surgical force against marginalized and racialized women. This history illuminates the theological, patriarchal, and epistemological roots of obstetric violence and racism today. O'Brien illustrates how ideas about maternal worth and unborn life developed in tandem. Eighteenth-century priests sought to save unborn souls through cesarean section, while nineteenth-century doctors aimed to salvage some unmarried women’s social reputations via therapeutic abortion. By the twentieth century, eugenicists wished to regenerate the nation’s racial profile, in part by sterilizing women in public clinics. The belief that medical interventions could redeem women, children, and the nation is what O’Brien refers to as “salvation though surgery.” As operations acquired racial and religious significances, Indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and mixed-race people’s bodies became sites for surgical experimentation. Even during periods of Church-state conflict, O'Brien argues, the religious valences of experimental surgery manifested in embodied expressions of racialized, and often-coercive, medical science. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-172135 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | The University of North Carolina Press |
| publisherStr | The University of North Carolina Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1721352026-02-19T05:09:20Z Surgery and Salvation O'Brien, Elizabeth History of surgery History of obstetric surgery History of sterilization History of obstetric violence History of obstetric racism History of reproductive injustice History of obstetrics History of reproduction History of eugenics Science Medicine And the Catholic Enlightenment History of the Catholic Enlightenment Feminist history History of racial science History of medical racism Mexican history Eighteenth Nineteenth And twentieth centuries History of Mexico City History of Catholicism in Mexico History of race Indigeneity And racism in Mexico History of the cesarean operation thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls In this sweeping history of reproductive surgery in Mexico, Elizabeth O'Brien traces the interstices of religion, reproduction, and obstetric racism from the end of the Spanish empire through the post-revolutionary 1930s. Examining medical ideas about operations (including cesarean section, abortion, hysterectomy, and eugenic sterilization), Catholic theology, and notions of modernity and identity, O'Brien argues that present-day claims about fetal personhood are rooted in the use of surgical force against marginalized and racialized women. This history illuminates the theological, patriarchal, and epistemological roots of obstetric violence and racism today. O'Brien illustrates how ideas about maternal worth and unborn life developed in tandem. Eighteenth-century priests sought to save unborn souls through cesarean section, while nineteenth-century doctors aimed to salvage some unmarried women’s social reputations via therapeutic abortion. By the twentieth century, eugenicists wished to regenerate the nation’s racial profile, in part by sterilizing women in public clinics. The belief that medical interventions could redeem women, children, and the nation is what O’Brien refers to as “salvation though surgery.” As operations acquired racial and religious significances, Indigenous, Afro-Mexican, and mixed-race people’s bodies became sites for surgical experimentation. Even during periods of Church-state conflict, O'Brien argues, the religious valences of experimental surgery manifested in embodied expressions of racialized, and often-coercive, medical science. 2026-02-19T05:09:19Z 2026-02-19T05:09:19Z 2026-02-18T15:35:43Z 2023 book https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110000 9781469675886 9798890863805 9781469679716 9781469675893 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/172135 eng Studies in Social Medicine open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/110000/2/9798890863805.pdf The University of North Carolina Press The University of North Carolina Press 10.5149/9781469675893_OBrien 10.5149/9781469675893_OBrien f46e5319-8d09-4c63-b9f2-a13480694ab4 9781469675886 9798890863805 9781469679716 9781469675893 The University of North Carolina Press 336 Chapel Hill open access |
| spellingShingle | History of surgery History of obstetric surgery History of sterilization History of obstetric violence History of obstetric racism History of reproductive injustice History of obstetrics History of reproduction History of eugenics Science Medicine And the Catholic Enlightenment History of the Catholic Enlightenment Feminist history History of racial science History of medical racism Mexican history Eighteenth Nineteenth And twentieth centuries History of Mexico City History of Catholicism in Mexico History of race Indigeneity And racism in Mexico History of the cesarean operation thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls O'Brien, Elizabeth Surgery and Salvation |
| title | Surgery and Salvation |
| title_full | Surgery and Salvation |
| title_fullStr | Surgery and Salvation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Surgery and Salvation |
| title_short | Surgery and Salvation |
| title_sort | surgery and salvation |
| topic | History of surgery History of obstetric surgery History of sterilization History of obstetric violence History of obstetric racism History of reproductive injustice History of obstetrics History of reproduction History of eugenics Science Medicine And the Catholic Enlightenment History of the Catholic Enlightenment Feminist history History of racial science History of medical racism Mexican history Eighteenth Nineteenth And twentieth centuries History of Mexico City History of Catholicism in Mexico History of race Indigeneity And racism in Mexico History of the cesarean operation thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls |
| topic_facet | History of surgery History of obstetric surgery History of sterilization History of obstetric violence History of obstetric racism History of reproductive injustice History of obstetrics History of reproduction History of eugenics Science Medicine And the Catholic Enlightenment History of the Catholic Enlightenment Feminist history History of racial science History of medical racism Mexican history Eighteenth Nineteenth And twentieth centuries History of Mexico City History of Catholicism in Mexico History of race Indigeneity And racism in Mexico History of the cesarean operation thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::M Medicine and Nursing::MB Medicine: general issues::MBX History of medicine thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups thema EDItEUR::N History and Archaeology::NH History::NHK History of the Americas thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSF Gender studies, gender groups::JBSF1 Gender studies: women and girls |
| url | https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/110000 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT obrienelizabeth surgeryandsalvation |