Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Definition: Couvade

Couvade: imitation by the father of many of the concomitants of childbirth, at the time of his wife's parturition. The father may retire into seclusion as well as observe various taboos and restrictions. One explanation for this custom is that the father and mother of a newborn both have to be cautious and avoid foods and activities that might, through supernatural means, bring harm to themselves or the child. Another explanation contends that the father simulates the wife's activities in order to focus evil spirits on him rather than her. A third reasoning is that the father asserts his paternity by appearing to take part in the delivery. Indigenous South Americans, such as those of the Guianas, the Caribs, the Arawakan Guayapé, and the Northwestern and Central Gê of E Brazil, believe that the child has a stronger supernatural bond with the father than with the mother and use the couvade to reinforce this bond. In extreme forms of couvade, the man may mimic the pain and process of childbirth and expect his wife to wait on him in the following days. The practice has been noted since antiquity, in such widely dispersed places as Africa, China, Japan, India, among native populations of North and South America, and among the Basques of France and Spain.

Possible origin: "But, when the man learned that his seed produced the young, he had a violent revulsion of pride. Sometimes he considered woman only the nursery, the hothouse of his child. From such an idea came the curious relic of custom called 'couvade'..."
-Emma Hawkridge, The Wisdom Tree, 1945.

3 comments:

romanreb said...

Guys...seriously?

Rufus said...

Yep. Actually, Marco Polo wrote about seeing this way back in the 1300s and it was one of the reasons Europeans thought he made his travels up- it couldn't possibly be real! But, it turns out the anthropologists were eventually able to confirm it.

runescape gold for sale said...

Marco Polo had written about seeing this way returning in the 1300s and it was one of the factors Eurpean people believed he created his moves up- it couldn't probably be real! But, it changes out the anthropologists were gradually able to validate it.
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