Serpent Fears and Religious Motifs among Mexican Women
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11241499 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Inez Cardozo-Freeman (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1978 |
| Volume | 3 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 10 |
| Publication date | 1978-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Frontiers A Journal of Women Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0160-9009 • E-ISSN: 1536-0334 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/3346321 |
| OpenAlex | W2315293076 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 1 |
My grandmother ... this is the way I heard it ... she said that a woman had to protect herself a great deal when she was pregnant because a lot of things could happen that would kill the baby and one of the things was the invasion of a snake, and the snake, since it is associated with the devil was the devil and he will come and kill the children who are going into the service of God. ... She called the snake a serpiente diablo [devil serpent] or something like that. If a woman did not take care of herself, he would invade the womb and he would suffocate the baby by putting his entire body inside its [the baby's] mouth and then by taking its tail and circling it around the umbilical cord and then ... so that the baby wouldn't get any nourishment ... and so it would die, and this was thought that if the baby was born dead, or was stillborn, or it was a miscarriage, that's 'cause the devil had done his work. . . . In order to protect herself the mother would have to ... wear the little ... scapular ... when you do your communion they give you this scapular with the Virgin of Guadalupe on one side and then, they had to wear that so that would protect them, and then pray, of course, you know. Say, Thank you, God, for giving me one more day with my child. I hope that it is born well and serves you in the ways it's supposed to. And this was to be said every day, the prayer, to protect. And when they went to bed at night it was repeated again. ... She would always have to wear garments to protect herself so that it wouldn't get inside, you know, up into the womb or anything, so that she would have to be secure, and then there was a ... special sash that they wore and it was blessed by the priest, and they wore it around the stomach. ... The men had to do things, too, to help. The men would grow their beards so that would be some kind of way to help the woman from the serpent invading the house. It was a form of .. not imitating . . . it was an image of Joseph with his beard, you know, and they would let their hair grow so that that would help the . . . keeping the evil away, keeping the serpent away. . . . The serpent would come regardless of where you lived. It did not matter because el diablo viene [the devil comes]. It does not matter where you are, he would come
Art · Genealogy · MAGIC (telescope · Order (exchange · History · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,11 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2017 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |