2011 | HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 1 (1): 345–389 |Translation| Begetting ordinary humans*

• Main Authors: Maurice Godelier, École Des Hautes Études En, Sciences Sociales
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: inuit
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.402.5440; http://www.haujournal.org/index.php/hau/article/viewFile/37/5/

Let us take again the example of the Inuit to complete it and to introduce the analysis of a few other representations of what it is to ―make a baby. ‖ For the Inuit, to make a baby, the parents must have sexual intercourse. The father makes the child‘s bones, its skeleton, with his sperm. With her blood, the mother makes its flesh and its skin. The child takes shape in the mother‘s womb. It will resemble its father or its mother, depending on the strength of the life force of each. Its body will be nourished by the meat from the game killed by its father and eaten by its mother. At this stage of intrauterine life, the child is a foetus with no soul.