Dimensions of time and comparative analysis in surrogacy research

Abstract

This article argues that long-term ethnographic immersion, combined with ongoing comparative discussions between the authors shed light on temporal aspects of the evolving social practice of surrogacy in new ways. First, the longitudinal perspective each of us had adopted helped to illuminate the changing cultural meanings of surrogacy in our research sites, the US and Israel, respectively. Second, comparative discussion of our findings provided us with insights into some of the shifts in similarities and differences between our respective data. We observe comparative and longitudinal changes over time in surrogates’ constructions of collective meanings, including money and work and moral responsibility for the baby. Meanings are constitutive of social practices; our perspective illuminates the evolution of surrogacy and its socio-cultural understanding, thus countering normative and universalist interpretations.