ABSTRACT
Now the fathers entered the couvade. Or at least some of them did. The male couvade is a puzzling phenomenon of which we know little. The word was coined in 1865 by an anthropologist, Sir Edward Taylor. It has been widely used since in reports of tribal life – where the father takes to his bed, or wears women’s clothes or is delivered of a stone or a doll, after imitating the pangs of labour. There are scores of variations, usually located in South American, Polynesian, African or Indian life – the prime areas where the founding generations of anthropologists did their fieldwork. It is usually observed close to the onset of labour and it is argued either that it is a ceremony to ward away evil spirits from child and mother, or a public declaration of paternity and responsibility. In societies where man was coping with frequent death in labour, and huge mortality rates amongst the newborn, this may well be so.
