Children of the Mother Goddess. History of Mediterranean Neonates

Book excerpt: The leading elements in this volume are the cultural representation of birth and the forms through which its narration and representation develop in the figurative arts, through historical references, mythological tales and legends, traditions, customs and habits. The influence of myth, language and artistic expression on our cultural representation of procreation is manifest, and this way of “narrating” birth resists even today, although it comes into conflict with a more scientific vision of pregnancy and childbirth. With this book we believe we have contributed to an in-depth examination of illness narratives, thus favouring the search for a convergence between medical language in the sector and the language of cultural experience so that evidence-based medicine does not clash with narrative-based medicine, but that the two languages come together towards a reciprocity that will strengthen the alliance between physician and patient.