Abstract:
This thesis demonstrates some of the many ways that indigenous women in the Andean
highlands are influenced to utilize indigenous medical and biomedical reproductive
healthcare services and contraceptive methods. It focuses on some of the deeply rooted
influences that affect choice of care, in particular, the cultural construction of the female
body, gender roles and authority, the theories and practices of biomedicine in relation to
those of indigenous Andean medicine, and the historical exploitation of indigenous
Andean groups.
