Critiquing the “Good Enough” Mother: A Perspective Based on the Murik of Papua New Guinea KATHLEEN BARLOW ABSTRACT Despite ongoing debates about family, work, and the characteristics of good mothers, cultural and disciplinary biases have led many anthropologists and psychologists to ig- nore cultural aspects of mothering. Feminists and others have questioned the lack of agency for women in dominant psycholog- ical theories and the relative absence in psychoanalytic theory of mothers as subject persons. On the basis of data from the Murik of Papua New Guinea, in which mothering is conceptualized as a template for many kinds of social relationships and as a source of power, I argue that a holistic and relational view of mothering in social and cultural context is needed to restore subjectivity and agency to women as mothers and to understand mother- ing as a dynamic and culturally informed process. [mothering, feminist anthropology, psychoanalytic theory, Melanesia] W estern cultural biases in psychological theorizing have obscured the extent to which the idea and practice of mothering are culturally informed. The lack of a cultural perspective on mothering has important consequences for both anthropology and psychology. On the one hand, it has meant that psychologists are hard pressed to explain cultural varia- tion in mothering as anything other than tolerable deviation or pathology. On the other hand, although anthropologists have long understood that mothering contributes to the enculturation of individuals and the repro- duction of society, they have found it difficult to understand or convey Ethos, Vol. 32, Issue 4, pp. 514–537, ISSN 0091-2131, electronic ISSN 1548-1352. C  2004 by the American Anthropological Association. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, at http://www.ucpress. edu/journals/rights.htm.