Couvade

Couvade is a term which was coined by anthropologist E.B. Tylor in 1865 to refer to certain rituals fathers in several cultures adopt during pregnancy.

Originally couvade began in Black Egypt as a "sacred birth custom, of when a child is born , the man experiences the ritual of "labor" in which he takes to his bed , and undergoes periods of fasting and purification, and the observance of certain taboos. [1]

The term "couvade" is borrowed from French (where it is derived from the verb couver "to brood, hatch"); the use in the modern sense derives from a misunderstanding of an earlier idiom faire la couvade, which meant "to sit doing nothing."[2]

For example, the Cantabri people had a custom in which the father, during or immediately after the birth of a child, took to bed, complained of having labour pains, and was accorded the treatment usually shown women during pregnancy or after childbirth. Similarly, in Papua New Guinea, fathers built a hut outside the village and mimicked the pains of labour until the baby is born. Similar rituals occur in other cultural groups in Thailand, Russia, China and many indigenous groups in the Americas.

In some cultures, "sympathetic pregnancy" is attributed to efforts to ward off demons or spirits from the mother or seek favour of supernatural beings for the child.[3] Couvade has been reported by travelers throughout history, including the Greek geographer Strabo (3.4.17) and the Venetian traveler Marco Polo.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mami Wata Africa's Ancient God/dess Unveiled Vol. I p. 71
  2. ↑ New Oxford American Dictionary (OUP, 2nd ed., 2005), p. 390.
  3. ↑ "Couvade Syndrome". The Free Dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved 20 April 2012.

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