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Cantabrian women's labour in the work of Strabo

Inmaculada García García,¹ Enrique Gozalbes Cravioto^2
1Lecturer, Nursing Department. University School of Health Sciences, University of Granada. Granada, Spain. ²Professor of Ancient History, History Department. University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Manuscript recieved by 10.9.2009
Manuscript accepted by 18.12.2009

Index de Enfermería [Index Enferm] 2010; 19(1): 64-68

How to cite this document

Abstract

The text of the Greek geographer Strabon, refers to the labour of the women Cantabrians (Hispanic Pre-roman people) has deserved usually the attention of the investigations. The mention of Strabon has been considered generally as a proof of the possible recent existence of a matriarchy between the Cantabrians people. In this project this assessment is discussed and the conclusions is that more probability, the Strabon´s allusion was a product of the incomprehension of the customs and the rites of the Cantabrians people, as well as the result of the ethnocentric view characteristic of the Greek-Romans writers.
Key-words: Labour/ Hispanic/ Pre-Romans/ Rites/ Matriarchy.

Introduction

    There are scarce data about labour conditions in olden days. Classical literature has hardly described purely natural common situations, such as those related to humans and diverse mammal species. As reported on several occasions, the professionalization of nursing was not achieved in old times because its main functions were covered by the family, especially in wide non-nuclear families (as currently).^1,2
    The announcements of births in the Spain of the Antiquity were exceptionally reported, as in the case of the neonate who chose to come back to the maternal womb in the heat of the battle of Sagunto.³ Another reference is made by the Christian Clement of Alexandria,⁴ who described the strength displayed by Iberian women during labour. In this line, the Greek geographer Strabo also collected some details about Cantabrian women's labour at the beginning of the Christian Age. His statements, quoted very often, have been the subject of many observations. In next sections, we will analyse Strabo's text on Cantabrian women's labour as well as the different interpretations that has received over the years.

Strabo's text on Cantabrian women

    Strabo's Geography, which is composed of seventeen volumes, is one of the main works from the classical world. It is the longest and most important source about Hispania, but there are scarce and vague data on health aspects, only described occasionally.⁵ This work was done by the year 20 AC. The volume III is devoted to Iberia, the so-called "bull skin".^6-9
    The geographical distribution of the Hispanic territory coincided with cultural boundaries. There was an evident relationship between the rise of the civilization and territories: a very advanced area (South and Mediterranean regions), a wide intermediate area (the current plateau of Castile and inner zones), and another area populated by a backward people (Lusitania and especially the Cantabrian zone, just conquered by Rome). Broadly speaking, the closer to the Mediterranean, the less backward peoples there were.
    Strabo describes the Cantabrian territory portraying the fierceness of its inhabitants. He includes certain despicable events that had recently taken place during the Cantabrian wars of Augustus (the Astures also took part in some of them). Other authors^10,11 also reported with surprise that the prisoners (men and women) preferred their own death and that of their families to slavery. These stories illustrated the barbarism and rebelliousness of Hispania, which became a cliché when describing Hispanic people,¹² and more specifically, the Cantabrians.
    A novelty introduced by Strabo is that Cantabrian women, as well as other Barbarian peoples (Celts, Thracians, Scythians), did not match Greek and Roman women's behaviour patterns. The attributes of courage and bravery were not only ascribed to men but also to women. He then describes the labour of Cantabrian women, which has engaged the attention of contemporary historiographers: "women till the soil, and when they have given birth to a child they put their husbands to bed instead of going to bed themselves and minister to them; and while at work in the fields, oftentimes, they turn aside to some brook, give birth to a child, and bathe and swaddle it" (Strabo, III, 4, 17).¹³

Strabo and Bachofen's reflection on couvade

    Strabo's work on Cantabrian women's labour has become very popular among anthropologists. In 1861, Jakob Bachofen coined the anthropological concept of matriarchy (Mutterrecht). He considered Strabo's description, together with the mythological reference to Amazons, as a fundamental historical source of the so-called phenomenon of "couvade". He interpreted couvade as the transition from matriarchy to patriarchy,¹⁴ a moment in history where men pretended to be like women, displacing them after labour and thus gaining power over them.
    Bachofen's interpretation appeared during the rise of modern scientific Anthropology and had a great success. Since then, it has been quoted up to the present. His reflections were soon collected by Spanish historiographers.¹⁵ However, they have also been the object of criticism, based on the overgeneralization made by Bachofen from the particular case of Cantabrian women.
    Currently, Strabo's description is not considered sufficient proof of the existence of matriarchy, even in the Cantabrian area. Santos Yaguas states that: "Strabo's description of Cantabrian marriage is not enough (...) because even if Cantabrian women played an important role in marriages (...) we can not forget that men still gave them their dowry, which shows that men also played an important economic role in Cantabrian society. Furthermore, it is worth adding that political and military issues were both in men's power" (1995: 144).¹⁶ Other experts in Ancient Spain propose similar approaches.¹⁷ In the last decades, the hypothetical matriarchy of the Neolithic, which then gave rise to patriarchy, has been questioned and even contested by anthropologists, especially after Bronislaw Malinoswki's contributions with regards to matrilineality.^18-21

Other old texts about couvade

    The scarce texts from olden times that report something similar to the couvade reflect a limited scope of the phenomenon. Generally speaking, women were the ones to be assisted by their partners, or other members of the family, during and after labour. When Apollonious of Rhodes described the opposite situation in Argonautica, he was not reflecting the real world, but rather a mythical phenomenon, something that happened in a "no-place" (utopos) beyond the world, where mythical travellers arrived in the search of the Golden Fleece up to the coast of Tibareni. In the same way, Homer described Ulysses's contact with a fantastic unknown people who used to deliver new-born babies to their fathers. They put the moaning babies on the bed and attended women in labour needs, providing them with an appropriate bath and meals after labour.²² The description of Tibareni is not real, though. They appear as a group of peoples with strange customs, very different from those of the Greeks (and other civilized peoples).
    Another text dealing with the couvade was written by Diodorus Siculus in the middle of the 1^st century BC. He described the customs of Corsica inhabitants, which he considered especially rough. He reported that Corsicans "do not look after their delivering wives. When they finally give birth, it is the husband who goes to bed" (Diodorus Siculus, B.H. V, 14).²³ Diodorus pointed out the contrast among the different Mediterranean islands. Corsicans mistreated their wives so much so that they even ignored them during the postpartum period. However, the same author stated that close to Corsica, the Ebusitan people used to appreciate women very much because there was a lack of them in their communities.²⁴

The Cantabrian couvade

    Before formulating the matriarchy theory, based on initial evolutionist postulates, Strabo's work on labour and the possible couvade among Cantabrians already attracted the attention of historians in the 18^th Century. For instance, in 1768 it appeared in the Dictionaire Historique et Critique by Pierre Bayle,²⁵ whereas in 1768 it was reflected in La Cantabria by Father Henrique Florez.²⁶ So, when Bachofen used Strabo's testimony on couvade, there was a certain tradition supporting the approach.
    By that time, Strabo's work was taken as a nearly irrefutable proof of such as lasting historical phenomenon in the mountain areas of the north of Hispania. In 1818, José Antonio Zamacola explicitly stated that: "right after giving birth, Biscayan women used to get up and it was their husbands who took their place in the bed with their child".²⁷
    According to Strabo's testimony and other vague statements, a whole interpretation model has been successfully built trying to justify the couvade as a common phenomenon to very different Hispanic areas, especially to the Basque country.^28,29 In this line, Strabo's text about the couvade in Cantabrian peoples also deserved the attention of the anthropologist Julio Caro Baroja. After the Spanish Civil War, Caro Baroja tried to apply a functionalist model derived from the Vienna School to the analysis of Pre-Roman Hispanic peoples. According to him, the couvade among old Cantabrians would be the result of a matriarchal society in the area, whose remains would have lasted in the Basque country (and other zones) until the 18^th Century. This would also depict a shepherding society and economy.³⁰ Caro Baroja described the couvade as a way in which men could enhance their relationship and rights with regards to their new-born child.³¹
    The couvade has been widely interpreted in the same line of Bachofen and Caro Baroja. However, in the last years this approach has been critically reviewed. Certainly, the couvade has not been addressed by very specific studies, as proven when inserting the term in bibliographical databases and repertories. However, it is possible to get some more information about the specific practice of puerperio cubare, which means the after-labour confinement with all necessary attentions. Among civilized peoples, the usual practice was the confinement and care of women with the help of some family member. This is why Strabo, and some other writers from that time, reported the labour of Cantabrian women as an exception.

Critical analysis of Strabo's text

   The description made by Strabo appeared in a particular context which cannot be overlooked. In fact, Strabo's contribution on Iberia and his view of Hispanic peoples have been subject to a rigorous review in the past years. Currently, many of the different data and descriptions given by the Greek author are not considered as an objective report anymore. On the contrary, Strabo's texts are now found to be dominated by a subjective perspective, which shows a disdainful and ethnocentric view of resistant peoples with the aim of contributing to Roman propaganda.^9,32,33
    This ethnocentrism is more harshly expressed with regard to Cantabrians, since they were the last people resisting Roman domination in the Iberian Peninsula. In fact, the text dates from a time in which Romans had already started their armed confrontation against Cantabrians. The backwardness ascribed to these peoples was based on the observation of the woman's role in the Cantabrian society. In a similar way, Strabo described the inherent cruelty of the Germanic peoples according to the strong constitution and physical resistance shown by their women.³⁴ As a result, the couvade description accounts for a similar phenomenon: Cantabrians were proven to be cruel just because of their women's strength during labour.
    It is difficult to discuss on Strabo's assertions due to the lack of other sources. It seems plausible that certain residual customs in particular areas were associated with the whole Cantabrian society. In our opinion, some of these interpretations have sometimes been outrageous, such as those made by Schulten. He considered the Cantabrian puerperal practice as a sign of promiscuity, which would lead to the paternity recognition and the avunculus³⁵ (the woman's brother who had to protect her and her children).
On the contrary, Strabo had written that marriages in all Hispanic peoples (Cantabrians included) were celebrated in a Greek fashion, which seems in contradiction with all of those assertions about the backward character of Cantabrians. Caro Baroja tried to justify his contradiction stating that it was "enigmatic", interpreting his description as a simple ceremony and not as a family model. However, Schulten proposed a different explanation. He thought that Strabo's statement reflected the existence of a monogamous and stable marriage, though it was an innovation established by Augustus once he conquered the territory.
    Therefore, this "Greek marriage", spread all over the Hispanic peoples, shows the existence of monogamy and monoandry. Currently, Bachofen's and Caro Baroja's interpretations are questioned, since even if the couvade was a spread phenomenon, it would not justify the existence of a matriarchy. As opposed to what has been pointed out very often, the couvade and other data collected by Strabo are not sufficient evidence that proves the matriarchy among the Cantabrian peoples. Parturient women were the ones in charge of labour and after-labour care, even beyond the fact that, traditionally, labour assistance was provided by other women.^1,36,37
    Strabo pointed out that Hispanic peoples had certain features that did not make them entirely backward or fully civilized: it is the custom among the Cantabrians for the husbands to give dowries to their wives, for the daughters to be left as heirs, and the brothers to be married off by their sisters. The custom involves, in fact, a sort of woman-rule -but this is not at all a mark of civilization (Strabo III, 4, 18).¹³ We can conclude that Strabo was surprised at the important role played by women (which does not imply that men were dominated by them). This made him regard the Cantabrian society, in a disdainful way, as an inappropriate system of civilization (although not necessarily far from it).
    Strabo's description of Cantabrian labour rather shows the existence of a matrilineal system, a phenomenon related to Celtic traditions.³⁸ As it has been pointed out on various occasions, in old times (even Greeks and Romans), the father used to simulate labour by placing the newborn between his legs.³⁸
On the other hand, matrilineality has not even been proven among Cantabrians, since their epitaphs during Roman times, carry indigenous names showing a paternal filiation. As a consequence, a simple possible ritual does not involve the existence of a matriarchy. Strabo's ethnocentric view is more probably derived from his own disdain for the important position (although not predominant) held by Cantabrian women.
    The above considerations should also be contextualized. Recent studies on Hispanic women have highlighted their position in indigenous societies and during Romanization. They show how women used to play a much more prominent role than in Greek or Roman societies.^39-41 However, even other studies and perspectives can deeply modify the interpretation of Strabo's texts. If the couvade was a true spread phenomenon, would it imply women's social preponderance? This question can be answered from different argumentative perspectives. From an emotional perspective, it would symbolize the bond between the father and the child, leading to his sentimental self-affirmation and women's comfort. In this line, Genaro Chic states that the couvade not only is not a sign of women preponderance, but it also implies that women's role was merely to act as an incubator. In this way, the father would be the one to be "exhausted" after labour, since the mother would only be the nest.⁴²
    Thus, the couvade practice does not definitely denote an important position of women. In fact, this custom or ritual was also documented during the 19^th Century in the Bearn region (southwest of France), where the man was the one who used to get all kinds of attentions and greetings from neighbours and relatives. That was also the case in Brazil during the 19^th Century, as detected by anthropologists. The strength shown by Cantabrian women right after labour, as well as the working hardness shown by Germanic ones, explained, for Strabo, the "barbarian" character of these peoples.

Conclusions

    In our opinion, the observations collected in this paper reflect the need for a cautious approach to texts from antiquity, since they are all related to the ideological context in which they were created. For this reason, all data on certain eccentric peoples of the Roman world are no longer considered as totally real facts.
    The strength shown by Cantabrian women reflects the ethnocentric view of a Greek writer who supported the Roman conquest. He interpreted other peoples' features and rituals from his own cultural imagery.
    We can conclude that his text has been over-interpreted, without taking into account that it is biased by Strabo's own ethnocentric preconceptions and his propaganda objectives.

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