The body encoded: notes on the folklore of pregnancy

This article considers an urban subculture defined by gender and generation but invisible to all but those who are part of it; mothers. It is a woman’s first pregnancy which acts as an ‘initiation’ rite into the subculture’s secret tradition, since it is in this period that the popular beliefs, rituals, customs of mutual help and norms of communication, whose assimilation precedes the acquisition of motherhood status, are learned. Only one central aspect of this tradition is discussed here: symbolism of the body. Such a discussion entails, first, an analysis of the role of bodily symbols in organizing relations and consolidating the communicative system of what is termed here ‘the femalematernal-community’. Second, it will consider how this bodily code is reproduced by looking at its assimiliation in the period of first pregnancy. Central here is maternal folklore (advice and taboos, symbols and portentious signs (primety)) which codify the body. The phenomenon of ‘maternal erotica’ or ‘eroticism of the belly’ forms part of this discussion, since this is passed on by maternal culture also and is shaped and strengthened in folklore. Finally, the cultural taboos which make the bodily language of maternal culture difficult for the uninitiated to understand, and thus semiotically invisible from without, are explored.