Lihi

for the town in Nepal see Lihi, Nepal

In the Philippines, lihí is a condition in which a pregnant woman craves strongly for something, usually food, and is a concept universal to Filipinos. Almost all mothers of any race experience lihí. A stereotypical food that is craved for by mothers experiencing this is sour mango with bagoong. It is still debatable as to whether lihí can be classified as either a biological or psychological condition.

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Superstitions

Lihí refers also to a popular superstition that the offspring will closely resemble whatever its mother had craved for during pregnancy. When a child resembles an animal, for example, a manatee, it is said that during the gestational period, the mother enjoyed looking at that particular animal.

In other regions, lihí refers to the belief that any sensory stimuli imbibed by a pregnant woman influences the development of her child. Among indigenous people from the northern Philippines, for example, it is considered taboo to mention anything about animals such as rats or pigs near a pregnant woman for fear that when she hears this, her offspring may acquire the features of the animal mentioned.

Bible

An interpretation of Genesis 30:36-43 would posit that Jacob took advantage of lihí. He developed spotted and speckled cattle, sheep, and goats by taking rods from trees, partially stripping them of their bark so they appeared spotted and marked, and placing them into the animals' watering troughs. The mother animals that looked upon the sticks eventually gave birth to "ringstraked, speckled, and spotted" offspring which Jacob then received as part of an agreement.

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