Expectations of health professionals towards mbya guarani pregnant women (Misiones, Argentina)

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic account of the death of a young Mbya woman in northern Misiones (Argentina), I challenge the analysis of the biomedical versus Indigenous paradigm. In order to move away from a dichotomous analysis, I propose examining the expectations of health professionals as a theoretical and situational category that allows me to understand what is expected of pregnant women. I focus on the two most unified expectations emphasized by the formal health system: pregnancy monitoring and, closely tied to it, risk prevention. Although this analysis centers on medical expectations, it is a category that can be extrapolated to new observations, as I conclude that it aims to document projections ethnographically rather than abstract structures.