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Manos y materia. Volver tangible la sociabilidad en el parto áureo

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    Statement of Responsibility:
    Aichinger, Wolfram
    Main Author:
    Aichinger, Wolfram

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    Other Authors:
    Grohsebner, Sabrina

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    Format:
    Journal article
    Language:
    Spanish; Castilian
    Form / Genre:
    text (article)
    Published:
    2021
    In:
    Hipogrifo: Revista de Literatura y Cultura del Siglo de Oro ISSN 2328-1308 Vol. 9, Nº. 1, 2021, pags. 701-743
    Subjects:
    Annotation:

    The hands of those who attend birth introduce newborns to the world, and at the same time shape their future identities. These hands separate two bodies, expose the neonate, examine it, pass a verdict on its acceptability, and proceed to integrate it into society. The gestures of midwives, relatives, or celestial helpers, thus, create living beings and, at the same time, members of a community. Just as their hands can signal rejection and exclusion, they also turn into vehicles of sociability and socialization. Furthermore, the matter which passes through assistants' hands during the birth process becomes an instrument of their social practice. Inspired by considerations of cultural anthropology and sociobiology, we explore this phenomenon by examining medical treatises, literary works and hagiographic texts. They reveal the continuity of assisting hands and their symbolic relevance already present in ancient writings about childbirth, as well as the implications of such tradition for one of their key figures: the midwife


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