Abstract
THE strange custom of couvade, which consists of various taboos for and practices by the father of a new-born baby, more particularly his “lying-in”, has attracted the attention of many writers. Mr. Warren R. Dawson has evidently studied the subject to see how it would fit in with the migration of culture theory of Elliot Smith, but he can “merely throw out the suggestion that couvade may originally have been part of a religious ceremonial which was afterwards invested with new and varied significance and made a mere family concern. … We must, with Ploss, humbly admit that the state of our knowledge regarding the original motive of the couvade custom is expressed by a single word—ignoramus.” At all events, the author has done good service in bringing together a very large number of references and in clearing away some of the debris that has hitherto encumbered the discussion of couvade, and he has succeeded in his object of collecting into a convenient compass the material for a reconsideration of a puzzling and interesting problem.
The Custom of Couvade.
Warren R.
Dawson
By. (Publications of the University of Manchester, No. 194: Ethnological Series, No. 4.) Pp. ix + 118. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1929.) 7s. 6d. net.
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The Custom of Couvade . Nature 124, 790 (1929). https://doi.org/10.1038/124790b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/124790b0