Paper Short Abstract:

Couvade practices in Amazonia are usually considered as being infant-oriented. This is based on the assumption that newborns are fragile creatures that must be protected. I propose to examine the reverse hypothesis: that newborns are dangerous beings and the couvade mainly parent-oriented.

Paper Abstract:

In Amazonian anthropology, the term couvade came to refer to the set of perinatal ritual practices implemented by the parents of a newborn. These practices have mainly been explained by as being beneficial for the newborn and necessary to complete its fabrication into a fully-fledged human being (Rival 1998; Vilaça 2002). This interpretation seems to rest on the idea of newborns as fragile and incomplete creatures. Yet, growing evidence shows that newborns are also considered as treacherous creatures, susceptible of harming those around them (Costa 2017). In the light of such evidence, and based on my own fieldwork among the Amazonian Kulina people, this paper will attempt to argue that couvade practices in the region are parent-oriented just as much as they are infant-oriented. This is so because newborns are considered highly ambiguous and dangerous beings, from which one must protect oneself.