The Little Lady

Hutchinson, Rachael

doi:10.1080/0015587x.1966.9717051

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…But that is not the case. In an array of languages and dialectal variants over a broad geographic area stretching from the Atlantic to the Black Sea and from the Baltic to the southern shores of the Mediterranean, the weasel is regarded as female and commonly designated by names meaning 'little lady', 'little beautiful lady', 'little bride/newlywed' (Hutchinson 1966;Bambeck 1972Bambeck -1974Coseriu et al 1979, pp. 36-37;Mesnil and Popova 1992;Witczak 2004;Kaczynska and Witczak 2007), and also 'little midwife': comadreja (Spanish), kumairelo (Tolosan), cummatrella (Campanian), cumarella (Abruzzian), cumătriţă, cumetritl (Romanian) (Coseriu et al 1979, pp.…”

Section: Telling Names: the Lexicon Of The Weaselmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Obstetric Connection: Midwives and Weasels within and beyond Minoan Crete

Kuoni

2021

Religions

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The Minoan peak sanctuaries call for systematic comparative research as an island-bound phenomenon whose significance to the (pre)history of medicine far transcends the Cretan context: they yield clay anatomical offerings attesting to the earliest known healing cult in the Aegean. The peak sanctuary of Petsophas produced figurines of weasels, which are usually interpreted as pests, ignoring their association with votives that express concerns about childbirth, traditionally the first single cause of death for women. The paper draws from primary sources to examine the weasel’s puzzling bond with birth and midwives, concluding that it stems from the animal’s pharmacological role in ancient obstetrics. This novel interpretation then steers the analysis of archaeological evidence for rituals involving mustelids beyond and within Bronze Age Crete, revealing the existence of a midwifery koine across the Near East and the Mediterranean; a net of interconnections relevant to female therapeutics which brings to light a package of animals and plants bespeaking of a Minoan healing tradition likely linked to the cult of the midwife goddess Eileithyia. Challenging mainstream accounts of the beginnings of Western medicine as a male accomplishment, this overlooked midwifery tradition characterises Minoan Crete as a unique crucible of healing knowledge, ideas, and practices.

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Section: Telling Names: the Lexicon Of The Weaselmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Obstetric Connection: Midwives and Weasels within and beyond Minoan Crete

Kuoni

2021

Religions

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“…Many contemporary students of Brazil, instead of postulating this unbelief in the results of prolonged individual effort, have deduced another attitude from the same overt behaviour, namely the dislike of hard work, especially manual work (cf. Moog, 1954;Queiroz, 1957;Candido, 1964;Hutchinson, 1966). Formerly this dislike of work seems to have given rise to spectacular demonstrations of indolence, apathy and laziness, as witnessed by numerous travel-stories by European visitors to Brazil 107 .…”

Section: The Paironic Syndrome In Traditional Culturementioning

confidence: 99%