\u00abCouvade\u00bb is a word derived from the French \u00abcouvade\u00bb; \u00abcouver\u00bb means \u201cincubate\u201d \u201cbrood.\u00bb This ethnographic term designates a rite of sympathetic magic or formula for newborn recognition of newborn, practiced in some villages at the time of the birth of a son; that is a kind of simulation of birth by the father, who lies in the bed with the baby.<\/b><\/p>\n
\n\tThis rite or act of sympathetic pregnancy, that today seems to us strange and incomprehensible, is attested with some slight variations in Ancient<\/em> and Modern<\/em> world in Lapland, Melanesia (from Grec. μ\u1f73λαν=black<\/em> and ν\u1fc6σος = island<\/em>; islands inhabited by black<\/em> ), Borneo, Malaysia, England, France, Brasil (Amazon …), Germany, etc..<\/p>\n \n\tWith regard to Antiquity<\/em>, the first written evidence of which we have knowledge is provided by Apollonius of Rhodes<\/em> in the third century BC, director of the Library of Alexandría, who in his "Voyage of the Argonauts<\/em>", referring to the "Tibareni<\/em>" people of the eastern shore at the Black Sea, "rich in sheep<\/em>," says in the book II, verses 1012 and ff<\/em>;:<\/p>\n \n\tHere when wives bring forth children to their husbands, the men lie in bed and groan with their heads close bound; but the women tend them with food, and prepare child-birth baths for them.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n\tIn Century I.A.C. the historian Diodorus of Sicily<\/em> also tells us in his book "Historical Library", Book V, Chapter 14,<\/em> how Corsicans husbands<\/p>\n \n\tHusbands are not careful of their women when they are in childbirth , and when they give birth is the husband who lies in bed.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n\tand then the father receives congratulations and compliments from family and friends while his wife was engaged in the tasks of their role in the family.<\/p>\n \n\tIf these statements are inherently interesting, for Spanish<\/em> people is especially important information offered by the Greek geographer, on Roman times, a contemporary of Diodorus, Strabo<\/em>. He wrote about the year 20 AD a famous work, Geography<\/em>, in which he describes the regions and peoples of the Roman Empire from Asia to the British Isles. Book III<\/em> is devoted to the Iberian Peninsula<\/em> and its peoples and in 3.4.17<\/em> says about Cantabrian women:<\/p>\n \n\tas well as the valour not only of their men, but likewise of their women. These till the ground,2 and after parturition, having put their husbands instead of themselves to bed, they wait upon them. Frequently in their employment they wash and swathe their infants, sitting down by some stream.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \n\tand adds, do not know if in awe, or stunned by the rudeness of these women, how to continue their usual work.<\/p>\n \n\tOften several authors claim that this custom was preserved until recently in some regions of Spain, such as Galicia, Asturias, Burgos, Leon, Aragon. These to Spain referred statements must be subjected to a thorough review and serious critique because their lack of sufficient justification.<\/p>\n \n\tIn any case we must find a meaning or sense to this custom existing in so different places and regions. The ethnologists, historians, philosophers and psychologists have offered various interesting explanations.<\/p>\n \n\tTraditionally the text of Strabo<\/em> was considered proof of the existence of matriarchy<\/em> in Cantabrian populations. Modern criticism does not value it so and considers that the text, somewhat inaccurate, reveals the lack of understanding by Strabo of some customs so different and distant from the civilized Roman and Greek customs and in any case it is insufficient to confirm the existence of a time of matriarchy<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\tStrabo was attracted attention by the courage and strength of Cantabrian women and by the fact that they were who transmitted the inheritance and married their brothers, while a brother, the uncle, Latin avunculus<\/em>, was who wielded the authority over children . It is curious how the importance of the role played by the Uncle is extended and has remained to modern times.<\/p>\n \n\tThe interpretation until recently most accepted is the one formulated by the Swiss anthropologist Johann Jakob Bachofen<\/em> en1861. He related this practice to an alleged existing matriarchy<\/em> in the Neolithic and the transition to a patriarchal<\/em> system. The myth of the Amazons<\/em> and the couvade<\/em> were to him the evidence of the prior existence of matriarchy.<\/p>\n \n\tThe couvade is a rite of acceptance of paternity and legitimation of the newborn. In the matriarchy would women as family head, who legitimizes and decides on the acceptance of the children, now with male couvade or birth simulation is essential the acceptance by the father, without which the newborn is not incorporates to the family. This is in summary an express public recognition of paternity, the role of the father and of the new being as his son. (Recall how on the Roman is the “paterfamilias<\/em>” who formally accepts newborn.) With these rites would be denied the matriarchy or “gynecocracy<\/em>” (from γυν\u1f75, gyne- woman<\/em> and κρ\u1f71τος, kratos, power<\/em>; women government<\/em>) as Strabo says using an exact terminology. Bachofen's theory has been enormously successful.<\/p>\n \n\tFor some authors patriarchy have been introduced in villages whit matriarchal culture, but this is a supposition or theory difficult to accept, especially after Malinowski<\/em> studies.<\/p>\n \n\tThe anthropologist Malinowski<\/em> studied the "matrilineal" societies<\/em> of New Guinea, in which only is recognized the matrilineal descent, and saw how power is wielded by the man, but in the figure of the maternal uncle or "avunculus<\/em>" in Latin.<\/p>\n \n\tIn a sense absolutely contrary to Freud<\/em>, the psychoanalyst Walter Georg Groddeck<\/em> believes that women do not feel the "male penis envy ", but is the man who feels himself incomplete woman<\/em> and therefore has the "envy of the uterus<\/em>. The covada not express but the desire to give birth.<\/p>\n \n\tMan describes medical syndrome known as "couvade syndrome<\/em>" or sympathetic pregnancy, which manifests itself in a state of anxiety empathic father to the birth of the child, which may have to do with the so-called "empathy neurons<\/em>" and that explain its existence in the past and in the present.<\/p>\n \n\tAn interesting insight is one of the Chic Genaro<\/em>: what the couvade would mean is the consideration of women as mere incubator or nest for the child in front of the parent generating position; and with it is so absolutely discredited the theory of the existence of a matriarchy<\/em> in which that power was held by the wife.<\/p>\n \n\tEven some relate to this ancient practice the modern custom by which the father accompanies the mother during birht and collaborates with his positive attitude, but this healthy practice has another meaning when births in hospitals and maternity wards impersonal medical safety guarantee, but separates the so transcendent fact from all family context.<\/p>\n \n\tIt appears that this theme of "couvade<\/em>" and its branches to the "matriarchy<\/em>" are not sufficiently studied. In any case is once again highlighted the difficulty of interpreting the meaning of the ancient texts, children of his time and of a particular context. \u00abCouvade\u00bb is a word derived from the French \u00abcouvade\u00bb; \u00abcouver\u00bb means \u201cincubate\u201d \u201cbrood.\u00bb This ethnographic term designates a rite of sympathetic magic or formula for newborn recognition of newborn, practiced in some villages at the time of the birth of a son; that is a kind of simulation of birth by the father, who lies in the bed with the baby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,6,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-habits","category-hispania","category-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4722\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiquitatem.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"