First published in 1998, this volume examines how women in general and how the socio-economic and cultural factors affect the health and nutritional status of the mother, reproductive status, utilisation of health services, awareness of health services, health care behaviour, cultural practices associated with childbirth, lactation and more.

Currently, there are three approaches to studying American Indians: from how white Americans approach Indian studies, from the dynamics or exchange of Indian-white relations and from the Indian point of view. Donald Fixico, an American Indian, has been teaching and writing history for a quarter of a century. This book is the direct result of his experience as a scholar who 'thinks like an Indian' in an academic environment created predominantly by non-Indian thinkers. This book addresses current approaches to studying Native American traditional knowledge and acknowledges an Indian intellectualism that has up until now been ignored in studying Native American history. Written primarily from inside the Native world, but fully cognizant of the American cultures outside of that world, his unique voice speaks to a need for understanding the interior Native world: a world in which linear thinking is atypical and circularity is preferable.

Curing Madness? focusses on the institutional and non-institutional histories of madness in colonial north India. It proves that 'madness' and its 'cure' are shifting categories which assumed new meanings and significance as knowledge travelled across cultural, medical, national, and regional boundaries. The book examines governmental policies, legal processes, diagnosis and treatment, and individual case histories by looking closely at asylums in Agra, Benaras, Bareilly, Lucknow, Delhi, and Lahore. Rajpal highlights that only a few mentally ill ended up in asylums; most people suffering from insanity were cared for by their families and local vaidyas, ojhas, and pundits. These practitioners of traditional medicine had to reinvent themselves to retain their relevance as Western medical knowledge was widely disseminated in colonial India. Evidence of this is found in the Hindi medical advice literature of the era. Taking these into account Shilpi Rajpal moves beyond asylum-centric histories to examine extensive archival materials gathered from various repositories.

Despite a long and rich tradition of oral history research, few are aware of the innovative and groundbreaking work of oral historians in Canada. For this first primer on the practices within the discipline, the editors of The Canadian Oral History Reader have gathered some of the best contributions from a diverse field. Essays survey and explore fundamental and often thorny aspects in oral history methodology, interpretation, preservation and presentation, and advocacy. In plain language, they explain how to conduct research with indigenous communities, navigate difficult relationships with informants, and negotiate issues of copyright, slander, and libel. The authors ask how people’s memories and stories can be used as historical evidence – and whether it is ethical to use them at all. Their detailed and compelling case studies draw readers into the thrills and predicaments of recording people’s most intimate experiences, and refashioning them in transcripts and academic analyses. They also consider how to best present and preserve this invaluable archive of Canadian memories. The Canadian Oral History Reader provides a rich resource for community and university researchers, undergraduate and graduate students, and independent scholars and documentarians, and serves as a springboard and reference point for global discussions about Canadian contributions to the international practice of oral history. Contributors include Brian Calliou (independent scholar), Elise Chenier (Simon Fraser University), Julie Cruikshank (University of British Columbia), Alexander Freund (University of Winnipeg), Steven High (Concordia University), Nancy Janovicek (University of Calgary), Jill Jarvis-Tonus (independent scholar), Kristina R. Llewellyn (Renison University College, University of Waterloo), Bronwen Low (McGill University), Claudia Malacrida (University of Lethbridge), Joy Parr (Western University), Joan Sangster (Trent University), Emmanuelle Sonntag (Université du Québec à Montréal), Pamela Sugiman (Toronto Metropolitan University), Winona Wheeler (University of Saskatchewan), and Stacey Zembrzycki (Concordia University).