Expelling frogs and binding babies

Conception, gestation and birth in nineteenth-century African-American midwifery

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3919835
AutoresLaurie A Wilkie (0000-0002-5785-1987, autor de correspondencia)
Año2013
Volumen45
Número2
Páginas272-284
Fecha de publicación2013-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.2013.799043
OpenAlexW2054759694
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas7
Referencias citadas24

That pregnancy can be perceived as a blessed or cursed event is well-recognised in many contemporary societies, but it was a lived and embodied experience for African-American women in the Deep South of the United States in the 19th century. Oral histories from healers, root doctors and midwives of the late 19th and early 20th centuries paint a portrait of the fetus as an invasive spiritual malignancy to be driven from the body, or an ephemeral spirit that could be accidently frightened from an unwelcoming body. This paper explores these beliefs and practices and examines their archaeological signatures. It considers how during and after birth, the infant remained only lightly bound to this world with the spiritual world beckoning beguilingly to them and where spiritual-medical intervention was required to entire the infant's soul to anchor itself to the physical body. Keywords: abortionpregnancychildbirthAfrican-Americahistorical archaeology

Archaeology · Embodied cognition · Ephemeral key · Ethnology · Obstetrics · Portrait · Sociology · Soul · American Environmental and Regional History · Canadian Identity and History · Gender Studies · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Medicine · Philosophy