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the Maya midwife as sacred specialist: a Guatemalan case
Author(s) -
PAUL LOIS,
PAUL BENJAMIN D.
Publication year - 1975
Publication title -
american ethnologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.875
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1548-1425
pISSN - 0094-0496
DOI - 10.1525/ae.1975.2.4.02a00080
Subject(s) - prestige , resistance (ecology) , maya , position (finance) , sociology , point (geometry) , gender studies , history , business , philosophy , archaeology , ecology , linguistics , geometry , mathematics , finance , biology
Midwives in San Pedro la Laguna, like shamans, are ritual specialists who enjoy high status, despite the subordinate position of women as a class. To account for the midwives' elevated status, a five‐point explanation is offered: (1) the role is highly professionalized, (2) requiring that incumbents be drawn from the pool of married women in their prime, (3) who must overcome their own and their husbands' resistance; (4) this barrier is surmounted only by manifold evidence of divine election, (5) which in turn accords midwives prestige and respect.