["If a woman has a big head": physiognomy and feminine nature in an Assyro-Babylonian text].
In Mesopotamia, the human body was understood as an object for divination, that is, a system of signs, which carried messages about the individual, and whose meaning had to be decoded by means of observation and interpretation. Taking the physiognomic series "Summa sinnistu qaqqada rabât" ("If a woman has a big head") as the main source of my article, I analyse, on the one hand, the processes that take part in the promotion of a particular perception of women based on a specific reading of the female body. On the other hand, I deal with the elements that characterize this female perception, basically, the image of the ideal woman centred on motherhood, and, in close relation to this, the dangers that threaten women's life during pregnancy.
Institut Universitari d'Història J. Vicens i Vives, Barcelona
Erica Couto
EC
Ferreira
D018436:Ancient Lands / Q000208:ethnology; D000883:Anthropology / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D005260:Female; D049690:History, Ancient; D018594:Human Body; D006801:Humans; D008373:Manuscripts as Topic / Q000266:history; D019370:Observation; D010826:Physiognomy; D011247:Pregnancy; D012068:Religion and Medicine; D012070:Religion and Science; D012071:Religion and Sex; D014930:Women / Q000193:education / Q000266:history / Q000523:psychology; D016387:Women's Health / Q000208:ethnology / Q000266:history