Couvade is a term which was coined by anthropologist
E. B. Tylor
Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (2 October 18322 January 1917) was an English anthropologist, and professor of anthropology.
Tylor's ideas typify 19th-century unilineal evolution, cultural evolutionism. In his works ''Primitive Culture'' (1871) an ...
in 1865 to refer to certain rituals in several cultures that fathers adopt during
pregnancy.
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".
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."
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
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
India and many indigenous groups in the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World.
Along with th ...
.
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.
Couvade has been reported by travelers throughout history, including the Greek geographer
Strabo
Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...
(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.
[Conflict, Order and Action (Chapter 33), Edward Ksenych & David Liu, 2001]
See also
*
Couvade syndrome
References
External links
* {{Cite EB1911, wstitle=Couvade, volume=7, pages=337–338
Couvade in Tribal Cultures
Rituals
1865 introductions
Human pregnancy