Le placenta : entre oubli familial et investissement médical
Résumé
This article describes the evolution of knowledge and practices on the placenta by showing the models to which they relate. The medicalisation of birth gives the placenta an ontological vision. This representation is in opposition to traditional practices reported by French ethnologists, where it was considered to be a duplicate of the newborn, with a symbolic value that justified rituals involving the father and bringing the child into the context of a domestic environment. The author first presents the medical and ethnographical knowledge accumulated around this subject, then compares this with medical practices and their perceptions by women questioned in the context of a study of the ethnography of birth in a large city suburb.