Couvade

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

This article is about the male pregnancy ritual. For the proposed medical condition, see Couvade syndrome.

Couvade can be traced to Ancient 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]

An example of couvade is that 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 to 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, India[3] 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.[4] Couvade has been reported by travelers throughout history, including the Greek geographer Strabo (3.4.17).

According to Claude Levi-Strauss, the custom of couvade reinforces the institution of the family in some societies by "welding" together men and their wives and future children. [5]

Couvade has been interpreted by some as a manifestation of male womb envy, with the ritual serving as a psychological defense mechanism in which men appropriate or attempt to compensate for women's innate ability to produce offspring.[6]

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. Thurston, Edgar; Rangachari, K (1909). Castes and tribes of southern India Volume III-K. Madras, India: Madras Government Press. p. 492.
  4. "Couvade Syndrome". The Free Dictionary by Farlex. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  5. Conflict, Order and Action (Chapter 33), Edward Ksenych & David Liu, 2001
  6. Bayne, Emma (March 2011). "Womb envy: The cause of misogyny and even male achievement?". Women's Studies International Forum. 34: 151–160 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
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