The Serpent Within

Birth Rituals and Midwifery Practices in Pre-Hispanic and Colonial Mesoamerican Cultures

Bibliographic Data

ID2739976
AuthorsGabrielle Vail (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume66
Issue4
Pages689-719
Publication date2019-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnohistory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0014-1801 • E-ISSN: 1527-5477
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00141801-7683294
OpenAlexW2975242787
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited22

This article focuses on female-gendered activities in Mesoamerican culture and reveals a strong link between conception, pregnancy, and childbirth on the one hand and weaving and other activities that produce cloth on the other. Supporting evidence from sources such as codices painted during the Postclassic period (13th to 15th centuries) in the northern Maya area indicates that these associations have a longtime depth, spanning at least a millennium. Ethnohistoric sources from highland Guatemala, paired with contemporary practices in that region, provide further insights into beliefs and rituals associated with childbirth and midwifery among prehispanic Maya populations. A review of colonial-period Nahuatl sources provides a comparative perspective for framing the Maya data within the broader context of pre-Conquest Mesoamerica. Despite the events that have transpired during the past five hundred years in this region, this study finds that many of the elements that were key to this conceptual framework during the Pre-Hispanic period continue to be important today, although their range is more restricted now than it was during the Postclassic and colonial periods. Striking commonalities, as noted, are those that link weaving activities with pregnancy and childbirth. Additionally, objects and iconography related to women and birth-in the form of serpents, umbilical cords, and ropes-tie the act of birth to primordial creation events and highlight the association between midwife and creator grandmother

Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Biology · Chiefdom · Childbirth · Colonialism · Context (archaeology) · Ethnology · Geography · Iconography · Maya · Mesoamerica · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Pregnancy · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and Natural History · Gender Studies · History · Latin American and Latino Studies · Latin American history and culture

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