In the poem titled "The Midwife Addresses the Newly Delivered Woman" the author portrays the strengths and fortune of an Aztec woman she must have while giving birth to a child. The author mentions how the courageous and brave woman went through hard exhausting physical labor. The poem informs the mother that possible unpleasant situations may still occur. The new mother is aware and understanding that she has successfully won mastery. Also it is pointed out when women were giving birth it was like a battle, just as painful as the ones men fought in wars. The tone of this poem is very important. Throughout as I was reading this poem I sensed heartfelt and great concern for the new mother. Also, in this poem one may notice the role of religion that plays in this poem. The author states clearly that the newly delivered mother should give God great recognition and praise and too not think of her self as worthy for the child, it is God whom she needs to give credit to and thanks. This poem shows how during an Aztec woman's success in birthing to a child is a great significant, and grateful event during their culture. There isn't much information about the Aztec society since they are so long ago, the artwork and poems is most significant because it allows us to reveal some information. One may notice some characteristics of the author's culture as she puts emphasis on the importance of the period of time a woman goes through during her labor and giving birth to healthy newborn and religion in crediting God. As the child, it is characterized to be confined, and the mother as a warrior, in the poem it emphasizes how significant fighting and prisoning enemies were in Aztec society. During that time giving birth was very... ... middle of paper ... ...mpted to put an end to the religious quality of the midwives methods having the opinion to be witchcraft even though the Spaniards themselves were admired the expertise of the midwives. It is recorded and written that some women healers were more talented and knowledgeable than their own European doctors. As the Spaniards began to repress the Aztec religion, they began to prosecute and persecute these women as witches. http://www.plu.edu/~mumperee/women-society/home.html As I can imagine during this time period in the Aztec society bearing children was an important role in society in order to keep forth their living community. Without having any methods for contraception, at least from my personal assumptions, there were not any available to these women, which puts these women at more risk for pregnancy for those who may not be physically fit to survive labor.
The religion and culture of the Aztecs played a role in the way the way they thought and fought. They worshiped the war-god Huitzilopochtli. He was identified with the sun and was called "the Giver of life" and "the Preserver of Life" (xxxix). The religion carried some ridiculous rituals such as human sacrifice along with using magicians and wizards to cast spells. In war conditions, human sacrifice played a big role because the Aztecs would not fight to kill,...
El texto se puedo relacionar con el poema “Hombre pequeñito” porque compara el papel de una mujer con un canario encarcelado en una jaula. Al principio el canario quiere volar y saltar de la jaula; la mujer es el canario. Luego en la línea donde dice “digo pequeñito porque no me entiendes”, el hombre no entiende a la mujer porque ella quiere volar y no quiere estar enjaulada. Al final la mujer nomas ama el hombre durante media hora y nada más. El poema no tiene una rima específica, pero usa la anáfora de “hombre pequeñito” al principio de los versos. El poema también es una metáfora de la relación entre una mujer y un hombre, pero el hombre no sabe cómo tratarla. Este poema es muy feminista porque el hombre se llama pequeñito y se ve como un tonto, que nunca entenderá a la mujer. La autora Storni básicamente se burla del hombre.
Judith Ortiz Cofer’s use of diction had effectively implemented the dismissiveness behind an individual’s transition from childhood into adulthood, which had been the central meaning of the poem. Cofer’s uses a rather negative choice of wording in the first line of the poem that being, “My dolls have been put away like dead children”. As the poet decides to use the words “dead children” it brings a sense of gloominess upon the passage. Once the reader continues reading it appears that a connection can be made between the gloominess in the act of putting away the young girl’s dolls like “dead children” to her Quinceanera. Further Along the poem, the pessimism towards the act of maturing is found once again as the poet uses defeatist words such as “poison” when describing the fluids of her body that being blood. It seems that the young girl’s blood symbolizes her menstrual cycle, which effectively marks her entrance into womanhood. When describing the fluids of her body by using the word “poison” it creates a somber image of adulthood as she views her rite of passage as being toxicant. Ultimately, it seems that the poet’s use of diction provides the poem with a solemn tone which ultimately supplies the p...
The Aztec Calendar stone has become one Mexico’s national symbols. After decades of Latin American Art being degraded, underappreciated, forgotten, and abused, it has become one of Mexico’s most national treasures. After years of research from the Codex Mendoza, the Calendar, and documents by the Spanish conquistadors, it has gradually become clear as to how the Aztecs truly lived and how art played such a huge role in their society. It has not only given researchers insight to the Aztec culture and religion and has also given influence to modern and the mainstream media today such as fashion and graphic design.
When Thomas Jefferson wrote the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, it became one of his greatest legacies. In the first line he wrote, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" (U.S. Constitution, paragraph 2). Jefferson wrote these words to give inspiration to future generations in the hopes that they would be able to change what he either would or could not. The word “men” in the Declaration in the early 1700 and 1800’s meant exactly that, but even then it only was true for some men, not all. Women, children, and other segments of the population such as slaves and Native Americans were clearly not included. Jefferson himself was a slave owner and held the belief that women were inferior to men. Though women played no role in the political environment, they were crucial to the development and economic success of the times. The strength, courage and work ethic of pioneer women like Martha Ballard in “A Midwife’s Tale” (Thatcher, 1990) created the very fabric of the community and wove it together so the community could thrive.
Whenever Sira, Aminata’s mother went to help women deliver their babies, Aminata would go along too. She would watch and help her mother, eventually le...
This poem captures the immigrant experience between the two worlds, leaving the homeland and towards the new world. The poet has deliberately structured the poem in five sections each with a number of stanzas to divide the different stages of the physical voyage. Section one describes the refugees, two briefly deals with their reason for the exodus, three emphasises their former oppression, fourth section is about the healing effect of the voyage and the concluding section deals with the awakening of hope. This restructuring allows the poet to focus on the emotional and physical impact of the journey.
Any interpretation of this story is due to the reader’s personal emotions and feelings toward his or her own Papa. This story can be either a dance between him and his father, thus bringing them closer together. However, there is a darker side of this poem, on this side it is an unsettling fight between a boy and his drunken father and all the intimacy of the dance does not make an impression on the reader and is overshadowed by the anger they feel.
The term "reproductive rights" has become synonymous with abortion rights, birth control access, and issues surrounding reproductive technologies, yet the struggle for a woman's right to choose when and how to become pregnant often overshadows a woman's right to choose where and how to give birth. The lack of feminist discourse and activism surrounding issues of childbirth may attest to the hegemony in the modern American birth ritual of increasing medical intervention from obstetricians in hospital settings. There are currently several movements to challenge this dominant birth model--prepared childbirth advocates offer education classes and natural childbirth advocates lobby for the rights of midwives and home births--but I refrain from giving either of these movements a feminist label because neither are invested in challenging prevailing gender ideology or the equation of woman with motherhood. This paper will argue that a feminist discourse of childbirth is necessary by using a Foucauldian analysis to chart the current web of power and knowledge in the American hospital delivery room and how it works to deny agency to women in labor, alienating them from their experience. Recognizing that power and knowledge operate on a myriad of levels and tactics, including counter-tactics, I will not limit my focus to the dominant discourse of medical experts, but also explore what I call counter discourses of childbirth, particularly from the prepared childbirth and natural childbirth advocates. Within this discussion, I hope to offer suggestions on a feminist ethic of childbirth that reaffirms women's autonomy during labor, but does not limit them to prevailing codes o...
The Aztec religion was an odd one to say the least, and at first, the Spanish were frightened of it, and “they found it barbaric.” They pleaded with Cortes to leave, as the catholic religion is against that of the human sacrificial Aztec religion. Cortes took advantage of his power over the Aztecs and changed the religion. The religion of Mexico was then changed to Christianity, another important change that took place because of the Spanish. The Aztecs’ religion told them that a bearded God was to appear and reclaim the land, much like Cortes. The fact that the Aztec’s though the Spanish leader was a god, immortal and un-killable was a great tactical adavantage. The Aztecs’ culture had just led itself to its own doom. Many other things had changed, along with the mass extinction, the Aztec religion was lost, as well as many other records. The only documents the Aztecs kept were Codices, almost undecipherable drawings. When the Spanish defeated the Aztec empire, the Aztec culture was eviscerated, and we may never know more about it.
People should study the Aztecs and their agriculture because people can see how they stayed in power for so long, how advanced they were, and it gives people a lot of information on their religion. It’s important to study agriculture and is relevant now because the Aztec culture can still teach us things that we can do better in our society and things that we can even learn from them. For example, their agricultural methods, though not likely, could be considered today or new ideas can come from it. Much like looking through a telescope if we don’t focus on the right image in the night sky, if people don’t focus on the right aspect of Aztec agriculture people can miss the big
Fulfilling the roles of both mother and breadwinner creates an assortment of reactions for the narrator. In the poem’s opening lines, she commences her day in the harried role as a mother, and with “too much to do,” (2) expresses her struggle with balancing priorities. After saying goodbye to her children she rushes out the door, transitioning from both, one role to the next, as well as, one emotion to another. As the day continues, when reflecting on
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
Katherine Philips gained a lot of attention as a poet after writing “On the Death of My Dearest Child, Hector Philips”. This poem was written in a way to give readers an emotional account of a mother mourning the experience of losing her child. Philips expressed deep emotions from a maternal standpoint in the elegy. Unlike Jonson, Philips had the unspoken right of claiming a deep maternal connection with her son through pregnancy and childbirth. Philips’ approach to writing “On the Death of My Dearest Child” illustrates that the pain of losing her son, Hector, was enough for her to never write another verse again.
Soon, he caught the attention of a young pregnant woman who was standing in-front of the bookshelf and checking out the book of “New Parents Advice” with his husband. The women is around 30-35 years old, wore a low-heeled shoes with a big belly; while her husband showed people a mature feeling with his beard. And it is hard to tell how old is he. I can hear their conservation clearly since they were standing behind the bookshelf next to me. The couple was having a conservation about how to divide the work on taking care the upcoming baby in the future. Their conservation is full of love and with an air of expectancy. She always touched her belly gentlely and stretched the top of her head toward the ceiling while she was reading the book of with his husband. Their simile told me that she is so excited to meet their new born baby. However, her sentiment and emotion immediately affected by the disturbing atmosphere. The boy