Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico: Childbirth and Contraception from 1750 to 1905

350 Pages·2016·3.447 MB·English

by  Nora E. Jaffary

Reproduction and Its Discontents in Mexico
Reproduction and Its
Discontents in Mexico
Childbirth and Contraception from 1750 to
1905
NORA E. JAFFARY
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill
This volume was published with the assistance of the Greensboro Women’s Fund of the
University of North Carolina.
Founding Contributors: Linda Arnold Carlisle, Sally Schindel Cone, Anne Faircloth, Bonnie
McElveen Hunter, Linda Bullard Jennings, Janice J. Kerley (in honor of Margaret Supplee
Smith), Nancy Rouzer May, and Betty Hughes Nichols.
© 2016 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Set in Charis and Lato by Westchester Publishing Services
Manufactured in the United States of America
The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since
2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Jaffary, Nora E., 1968– author.
Title: Reproduction and its discontents in Mexico : childbirth and contraception from 1750 to
1905 / Nora E. Jaffary.
Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2016] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015049993 | ISBN 9781469629391 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469629407
(pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469629414 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Childbirth–Mexico–History. | Contraception–Mexico–History.
Classification: LCC RG67.M6 J34 2016 | DDC 618.200972–dc23 LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049993
Cover illustration: Fetus in the womb, Plate 4 from José Ventura Pastor, Preceptos generales
sobre las operaciones del parto (1789–90). Courtesy of Wellcome Library, London.
Portions of chapters 2 and 3 were previously published as “Reconceiving Motherhood:
Infanticide and Abortion in Colonial Mexico,” Journal of Family History 37, no. 1 (2012): 3–
22. Portions of chapter 5 were previously published as “Monstrous Births and Creole
Patriotism in Late Colonial Mexico,” The Americas: A Quarterly Review of Inter-American
Cultural History 68, no. 2 (2011): 179–207. This material is reprinted with permission.
For Ed
Contents
Abbreviations for Archival Sources in the Notes, Appendixes, and Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Midwifery, Monstrosity, and Motherhood
Part I
Purity and Productivity: Understanding Virginity, Conception,
and Pregnancy
1 The Evolution of Virginity
2 Conception and Pregnancy
Part II
The Hidden History of Contraception, Abortion, and Infanticide
3 Contraception and Abortion
4 Infanticide
Part III
Populating the Patria
5 Monstrous Births
6 Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Birth
Conclusion
Change and Constancy in Mexico’s Reproductive History
Appendix I. Abortion Cases, 1823–1884
Appendix II. Infanticide Cases, 1823–1897
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Figures and Tables
Figures
1 Legal abortion advertisement, Mexico City, 2011, xiv
2 Cristóbal de Villalpando, La anunciación, 22
3 Vaginal examination in vertical position, 1825, 70
4 A woman in labor, in bed, 1789, 71
5 María de los Santos de Pérez, 1889, 136
6 Monstrous birth: girl with two heads, 1741, 153
7 Monstrous birth: bicorporal infants, 1793, 155
8 Monstrous birth: infant with four buttocks and legs, 1789, 158
9 Monstrous birth: infant born without skull, 1893, 166
10 Midwife in naming ceremony in the Codex Mendoza, 180
11 Birth chamber, ca. 1830, 182
12 Birth instruments, 1789, 191
Tables
1 Midwives by ethnicity and civil status in Mexico, 1566–1888, 50
2 Abortion cases, Mexican Archives, 1652–1793, 93
3 Infanticide cases, Mexican Archives, 1699–1819, 106
4 Denunciations and convictions for infanticide in Mexico by decade,
1820s–1890s, 107
Abbreviations for Archival Sources in the
Notes, Appendixes, and Tables
ACSCJ
Archivo Central de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación, Mexico City
AGI
Archivo General de Indias, Seville, Spain
AGN
Archivo General de la Nación, Mexico City
AHET
Archivo Histórico del Estado de Tlaxcala, Tlaxcala City
AHFM
Archivo Histórico de la Facultad de Medicina, Mexico City
AHJO
Archivo Histórico Judicial del Estado de Oaxaca, Oaxaca City
AHMO
Archivo Histórico Municipal de la Ciudad de Oaxaca
AHSS
Archivo Histórico de la Secretaría de Salud, Mexico City
TSJDF
Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Distrito Federal