women's secrets: bases for reproductive and social autonomy in a Mexican community

Research in a highland Chinantec (Mexico) community hypothesized that women there monopolized knowledge about medicinal plants for the management of reproduction, which allowed them to regulate their own fertility without male intervention. It was further hypothesized that women who most effectively exercised reproductive autonomy would function more autonomously in other areas of their social lives as well. Instead it was found that women and men shared a great deal of knowledge about plants for reproduction, that some of the most effective fertility‐limiting remedies were known only by men, and that reproductive autonomy and social autonomy did not necessarily co‐occur, [medical anthropology, reproduction, gender roles, Mesoamerica] 1988 American Anthropological Association