ABSTRACT
As anthropologists increasingly become interested in men, masculinities, and reproductive health, there is yet a paucity of ethnographic research into men’s involvement in prenatal care. Apart from a handful of publications in the last 30 years, men seldom appear in even the background of ethnographic vignettes that concern pregnancy, labor, or delivery. The relationship between men and pregnancy and childbirth is one of the oldest objects of study in North Atlantic anthropology under the term “couvade.” Popularized by E.B. Tylor in 1859, couvade went on to become the center of debates spanning almost a century that catalyzed paradigmatic shifts in anthropological theory. In the early twentieth century, couvade was fractured into “ritual” and psychiatric forms which were incidentally distinguished by geopolitical borders and race. These forms were read as gender-bending or pathological, respectively. Anthropological interest in couvade waned after the postmodern turn, but there has been a recent renaissance of interest in men’s involvement under the banners of gender equality, neoliberal health reform, and global health interventions following the trend of “men’s involvement.” This chapter illuminates a history of sociocultural perspectives of expectant fatherhood, broadens the definition of couvade in the twenty-first century, and provides some direction for future research.
