Seguridad cultural para las madres indígenas mesoamericanas. Una exploración de las Epistemologías del sur con el Códice florentino como guía

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2014-12-31
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Latin American Studies Program, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Abstract
This paper explores birthing practices employed in Mesoamerican indigenous communities through the examination of the Florentine Codex of Fray Bernardino Sahagún, to glimpse at how the birthing roles of the original peoples of Mesoamerica were prescribed. The Florentine Codex is a 12 volume work of ethnographic research undertaken in the 16th Century to describe the lives of the Nahua (also known as Aztec and Mexica) people in Mesoamerica in the immediate aftermath of the Spanish conquest of the New World. We show that pre-Conquest women had roles which were respected throughout their communities. Indigenous Mesoamerican women today still adhere to those roles and the importance of their community, particularly during the highly significant function of pregnancy and childbirth. Their dedication to traditional customs, roles and maternity care preferences and behaviours puts them in conflict with the imposed system of centralised maternity care which has been introduced to the detriment of their well-being. Under the umbrella proposal ‘Epistemologies of the South’(Santos 2007), which critiques dominant epistemologies that decontextualise knowledge from its cultural and political contexts, we propose the concept of Cultural Safety which exists where indigenous people feel respected and empowered, and may be promoted and understood by the examination of historical investigations into indigenous life and beliefs.
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