BREASTFEEDING(S) AND RELIGIONS:
Normative Prescriptions and Individual Appropriations.
Cross-Cultural and Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Antiquity
to the Present - Sacra publica et privata 9
- Anno: 2019
- Autore/i: Giulia Pedrucci (ed.)
- Catalogo: Scienze e Lettere
- Argomento: Storia delle religioni
- Collana: Sacra publica et privata
- ISBN: 978-88-6687-162-0
- ISSN:
How do religions deal with breastfeeding? This is the main question we aimed at
answering during the International Workshop Breastfeeding(s) and Religions:
Normative Prescriptions and Individual Appropriations. Cross-Cultural and
Interdisciplinary Perspectives from Antiquity to the Present (Max-Weber-Kolleg,
University of Erfurt, July 11-12, 2018).
The goal is to analyze how religious discourses have described and influenced such a natural and strictly female practice. Within religious discourse, breastfeeding(s) can be seen as biological, spiritual, or even transgressive (for example, babies breastfed by animals, saints breastfed by the Virgin Mary, old men breastfed by young women).
Greek and Roman goddesses, for instance, except in some rare and specific
exceptions, do not breastfeed (they avoid biological aspects of motherhood in
general), but in the Egyptian narratives breast-milk is notoriously central for Horus (and the Pharaoh). Does a divine child need breast-milk and why? To what extent do (male) religious authorities and sacred texts dictate maternal practices in a normative way? Do they tell women how, how long, when, and where to breastfeed? Do they blame women who don't have milk, or who decide not to breastfeed? To what extent do women feel free to transgress without blaming themselves for not being a “good” mother and obedient member of a specific religious tradition? In which way can a mother's decision not to breastfeed be perceived as religious individualization and autonomy from social inter-connectedness? Which kinds of rituals do women perform in relation to breastfeeding and which deities do they appropriate, and eventually alter
and reinvent for this purpose? These are just some of the questions that can arise by putting together “breastfeeding/ s” and “religion/s”, and which clearly show how and why “breastfeeding/s” and “religion/s” can definitely go hand in hand with academic research.
Giulia Pedrucci is Marie Sk?odowska Curie Cofund Fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg für kultur- und sozialwissenschaftliche Studien (University of Erfurt).
INDICE
Introduction - Breastfeeding(s) and Religions: Why?
Giulia Pedrucci
FIRST SECTION
BREASTFEEDING(S) AND RELIGIONS: THE MEDICAL APPROACH
Des vases en forme de sein à vocation thérapeutique dans les sanctuaires de Gaule romaine?
Sandra Jaeggi
I disturbi dell’allattamento e il loro trattamento tra medicina e culto dei santi nel basso medioevo (XI-XV)
Marco Papasidero
Les Saints du lait: recours religieux en cas de difficultés dans l’allaitement (XVIIIe-XXe siècles)
Marie-France Morel
SECOND SECTION
BREASTFEEDING “AS AN INSTITUTION:” HOLY BOOKS, MYTHOLOGICAL NARRATIVES, INFLUENTIAL IMAGES, AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORITIES
Mothers and nurses in Aeschylus’ Choephori and Euripides’ Hypsipyle
Sabina Castellaneta
Breastfeeding “in Couple”: Interpretations of Votive Statuettes from Ancient Latium and Southern Etruria of a Breastfeeding Woman with a Man and of Two Women Breastfeeding
Giulia Pedrucci
La mère du Christ a-t-elle allaité son Fils? Une représentation de la Vierge dans l’œuvre de Nonnos de Panopolis au Ve siècle en Egypte
David Lorin
Breast-Milk and Dhamma-Milk: Giving Life, Giving the Dhamma
Pascale Engelmajer
The Mythical Cow as Everyone’s Mother. Breastfeeding as a Main Theme in Hindu-Religious Imaginings of Loved and Feared Mothers
Gerrit Lange
The Wet-Nurse in Hindu Discourse: A Triangular Investigation
Sucharita Sarkar
L’allattamento al seno e la benedizione divina nella tradizione islamica
Ada Prisco
THIRD SECTION
BREASTFEEDING(S) AND RELIGIONS AS REAL EXPERIENCE
L’impact de la religiosité islamique sur la perception de l’allaitement chez les mères marocaines: étude comparative entre deux générations
Saddik Darai - Hasna Abbaoui
Beliefs and Practices concerning Breastfeeding among Catholic and Orthodox Christian Women in eastern Poland
Kaja Kojder
APPENDIXES
The Dance of Nurture: Religion, Breastfeeding and feminine Power
Penny Van Esterik
Una rete europea per la tutela e il sostegno dell’allattamento materno in
farmacia
Paolo Delaini
F.to 17x24, pp. 280, Brossura, Ill. B/N