'MAK BIDAN' AS SOCIAL CATEGORY

Abstract

Among the 'Malays' in Singapore, there was and is a social category 'Mak Bidan’ that constituted knowledge and practice central in the care of women in their pre and post-natal periods and also during labour. However, in contemporary Singapore, the care of pregnant women is predominantly placed in the hands of medical practitioners within the context of the clinic and hospital. Correspondingly the contemporary Mak Bidan too has been re-placed. Additionally, there is also the social recognition that 'traditional' Mak Bidans have been replaced by the contemporary Mak Bidan. In this common sense understanding lies a sociological problematic: the Mak Bidans as a diminishing field of knowledge and practice; and hence the Mak Bidan as a practitioner with respect to such knowledges. Thus what does the 'Mak Bidan' mean today in contrast to the past? What does this tell us about the relations of knowledge/power and related contestations? Should and can one re-gain lost knowledges? The 'Mak Bidan' in effect offers a study about social control exercised in our social lives.