Chapter 21 People Contraindicated: Contraindications for Women During Menstruation and Childbirth

In general, we may say that the prohibition of the use of utensils and garments, etc., used by certain persons (whether holy or so-called unclean), and the serious consequences of violating this prohibition, are exactly the same.Just as a garment touched by a divine chief kills the person who later takes it, so does something touched by a menstruating woman kill.A negro in Australia found her menstruating lying on his blanket, killed her, and died of terror himself within a fortnight.Therefore, women in Australia during menstruation are not allowed to touch the things used by men, or even walk in the roads that men usually walk, or they will die.During the period of childbirth, they also have to be isolated. After the period expires, all the utensils used are destroyed.In Uganda, pots and pans and other objects touched by women during childbirth or menstruation must be destroyed; if gun shields and other objects are desecrated, although they are not destroyed, they must also be washed and purified. "In the Dene (Americas) and most other American tribes there is hardly anyone so feared as the menstruating woman. At the first sign of such a condition a maiden is scrupulously and immediately People of the opposite sex are separated and live alone in remote huts out of sight of the men of the village or passing men. In such an unpleasant situation, she is not even allowed to touch anything that belongs to men or any birds that have been hunted. the skin and flesh of beasts and other animals, so as not to stain these things, so that the next time the hunters hunt nothing (because the birds and beasts are so despised in this way are very angry). Her only diet can only be dried fish, and her only drink is cold water sucked through a drinking pipe. Besides, her presence is a danger to people. Therefore, even when she returns to her normal state after menstruation, she has to wear a kind of thin leather cap with a fringe, from her head Covered up to the chest, so that no one could see her face." Among the Burai Indians of Costa Rica, menstruating women were considered unclean.During this period, she could only eat with banana leaves instead of plates, and throw them away in remote places after use.Otherwise, if a cow finds and eats them, the cow will become emaciated and die.For the same reason she drank only from the vessel she had used, and if anyone drank from the cup she had used, that person was sure to die.

Among many peoples there are similar restrictions upon women after childbirth, and apparently for the same reason.Women during this period were considered to be in danger of contaminating anyone and anything with which they came in contact; they were therefore kept in seclusion until health and strength had been restored, and the imaginary period of danger had passed.In Tahiti [in Oceania], for example, after giving birth, the women are quarantined for a fortnight or three weeks in temporary huts in holy places, during which time they are not allowed to eat or drink themselves, but must be fed by others.In addition, if anyone touches the baby during this period, they must abide by those restrictions like the mother, until after the mother performs the "full moon" ceremony.Similarly, on Kadiak Island near Alaska, women who are in labor have to live in simple huts built with reeds regardless of the season, and raise their children there for 20 days.During this period, she was considered the most unclean, and no one approached her, and all the food she ate was brought to her on sticks.The Brai Brai Indians consider childbirth to be a more defiled pollution than menstruation.When a woman feels that she is about to give birth, she tells her husband, who hastily builds a hut for her in a deserted place, and leaves her to live alone, not to speak to anyone except her mother and another woman. .After she gave birth, the witch doctor would cleanse her, blow on her, and put any small animal on her.Even if this is done, it will only reduce her uncleanness to that of menstruation, and she must be separated from her original roommates for a whole month in the lunar calendar, and she must also abide by the rules of menstruation in terms of diet. .If she had a miscarriage or gave birth to a stillborn baby, then her condition was worse, and her uncleanness was all the more serious.Under such circumstances, she was even more forbidden to get close to anyone. Everything she used would be extremely dangerous for others to touch. The food and drink she ate were all hung on the end of a long stick and handed to her.This usually lasts for three weeks, and then you can go home and follow the usual taboos after childbirth.

Some Bantu clans have a more exaggerated view of the pollution caused by women having abortions and concealing them.An experienced observer said of these peoples, "In the eyes of South Africans, the blood of a child in childbirth is more dangerous than the filth of menstrual cramps. During the period of confinement, the husband must be isolated from home for eight days. The main reason for living here is that he is afraid of being polluted. During the first three months after the baby was born, he dared not hold the baby in his arms. The pollution caused by miscarriage, especially private abortion, is even more terrible. In this case, not only men are threatened or killed, but the whole country, the entire sky, is defiled. Due to the strange associations of ideas and concepts, physiological phenomena cause disturbances in the universe!" The following quotes from the Bapedi clan A witch-doctor and rainmaker in the 1980s on the disastrous consequences of women's miscarriages for the nation: "If a woman miscarries, and lets the blood flow, and hides the baby, these actions are enough to cause a fiery smoke, The whole country was scorched to the ground. Due to the disorder of social order, the sky stopped raining. When the rain was about to approach the place where the blood flowed, he dared not move forward because he was afraid of being contaminated, so he kept a distance. The woman committed the crime made a serious mistake, ruined the chieftain's country, and concealed the blood that has not yet congealed well. That kind of blood is taboo and must not be dripped on the road! The chief will gather all the men and ask them:' Is order normal in your village?’ Someone would reply, ‘The woman so-and-so is pregnant, and we haven’t seen the baby she gave birth to yet.’ So they went and grabbed the woman and said, ‘You hid him in Where is it? Tell me quickly.' They went to the scene with their belongings, poured the prepared potion boiled with tree roots into the grave, took out a small handful of grave soil and threw it into the river, and brought some river water back Sprinkle it where she bleeds. She herself has to wash with this potion every day. Then the area will be moistened with rain again. In addition, we (witch doctors) gathered all the women and taught them each to prepare a A lump of blood-stained earth was brought to us one morning. If we wished to make a potion out of it and spray it all over the country, we ground the earth into powder and put it in the horns of the bulls, and at the end of the fifth day sent out the virgin boys Virgins (girls who are not yet ignorant of human affairs and have never had a relationship with a man), ask them to go to various shallows and various entry crossings. A little girl will use a pickaxe to dig up the soil, and other children will insert branches into the horns of the cows. Sprinkle the earth powder with blood in it into the hole you just dug, and say, 'Rain! Rain!' and we will remove the evil that the women have left on the road, and it will rain and the land will be cleansed .”