CHILDBIRTH IN JAPAN: A REFLECTION OF “INDIAN CAMP”


Author: Asashi

A first-year student / English Reading Skills II

The article was given permission to publish on February 8, 2023.


A great mystery exists in Indian camps: the death of an Indian husband. In regards to this, Meyers advocated the consideration of “couvade” in which a man ritualistically imitates the symptoms of pregnancy and the groaning sounds of childbirth (Yasushi 3). The husband had no choice but to die because he allowed the white man to intervene when he was in the couvade role. I sensed here a ritualistic culture that places great importance on natural childbirth. We can see a conflict between the Indians, who try to follow the natural process of birth, and the civilized people, who use medical technology to intervene in childbirth. I realized that the conflict between nature and civilization also exists in the Japanese sense of giving birth.


The problem is the bias of natural childbirth against painless childbirth. In Japan, there is a high value placed on pain of childbirth during natural childbirth. This pain is associated with motherhood, as the experience of pain deepens one’s love for one’s child. The pain of childbirth plays a role as an initiation to becoming a mother. Therefore, having a painless delivery is considered to be spoiled and a bad thing. This ideology is why epidural labor is not widely used in Japan, even though it is popular in other medically advanced countries. We can see that a confrontation between nature and civilization like this still exists around us today. I was astonished because I thought the modern world was already civilized and such a thing did not exist.


The question that came to mind was how to deal with the conflict between nature and civilization. I believe that we should eliminate this oppositional structure between nature and civilization itself and aim for symbiosis. In the antagonism between natural culture and civilized technology, it is better to cherish culture but use technology when necessary. The husband died because he gave too much priority to culture. You don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other.

In Indian camps, we can see the conflict between nature and civilization. And we see it in modern Japan as well. These two are considered as a dualistic oppositional structure. However, nature and civilization do not necessarily have to confront each other, but can coexist.


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