Recruitment to a Ritual Role

Abstract

In the Zutuhil-Maya community of San Pedro la Laguna, a Guatemalan highland settlement with a population of 5000 Indians, midwives are recruited from the pool of married women in the 35-40 year age range who have heavy responsibilities as wives and mothers. They are relatively few in number and carry heavier patient loads than midwives in other communities. Their office is owed to divine mandate, and their work is guided by supernatural tutelaries. Duties of the midwives in this community include ritual performances. As sacred professionals, Pedrano midwives enjoy high status. The biography of Juana, a prototypical midwife, is recounted to illustrate how some Pedrano women do manage to become midwives. In San Pedro, midwives are born and not made, yet this is only the 1st step in the selection process. The common elements of the pattern of selection and recruitment include birth signs, enigmatic dreams in preadolescent years, the onset during married life of misforture and persisting illness accompanied by dream revelation, confirmation by a shaman of the woman's true destiny, discovery of strange objects mysteriously placed in her path, and disappearance of ill health and ill fortune upon beginning practice. The women who go this entire route and become successful midwives tend to share certain characteristics related to family background, parental expectation, and economic situation. In the Zutuhil-Maya community of San Pedro la Laguna, a Guatemalan highland settlement with a population of 5000 Indians, midwives are recruited from the pool of married women in the 35-40 year age range who have heavy responsibilities as wives and mothers. They are relatively few in number and carry heavier patient loads than midwives in other communities. Their office is owed to divine mandate, and their work is guided by supernatural tutelaries. Duties of the midwives in this community include ritual performances. As sacred professionals, Pedrano midwives enjoy high status. The biography of Juana, a prototypical midwife, is recounted to illustrate how some Pedrano women do manage to become midwives. In San Pedro, midwives are born and not made, yet this is only the 1st step in the selection process. The common elements of the pattern of selection and recruitment include birth signs, enigmatic dreams in preadolescent years, the onset during married life of misforture and persisting illness accompanied by dream revelation, confirmation by a shaman of the woman's true destiny, discovery of strange objects mysteriously placed in her path, and disappearance of ill health and ill fortune upon beginning practice. The women who go this entire route and become successful midwives tend to share certain characteristics related to family background, parental expectation, and economic situation.