Couvade refers to a cluster of ritual practices in which a father adopts pregnancy- or childbirth-like behaviors during his partner's pregnancy or labor, taking to his bed, observing fasting or dietary restrictions, undergoing purification rites, or, in one Papua New Guinea example, building a hut outside the village and mimicking the pains of labor until the child is born. The term was coined in 1865 by anthropologist Edward Burnett Tylor, though the underlying practices were described far earlier by classical writers including Strabo and Plutarch. It has been documented among a geographically wide and unrelated set of cultures, including groups in Thailand, Albania, Russia, China, India, South America and Papua New Guinea. Claude Lévi-Strauss offered an influential interpretation, proposing that couvade 'reinforces the institution of the family in some societies by welding together men and their wives and future children.'
Facts
Typical RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNo single typical region; documented across widely dispersed and culturally unrelated societies, including Thailand, Albania, Russia, China, India, parts of South America, Papua New Guinea, and among the ancient Cantabri of Iberia. 1 Documented YearSourced to the subject's own account1865 is when the term was coined by E. B. Tylor; the practices themselves are described in classical antiquity by Strabo and Plutarch, well before the modern anthropological term existed. Cross-Tradition Connections
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