Lactancia y cuerpo materno como transmisores de conocimiento y virtud: difusión de literatura médica en la Gazeta de México y el Diario de México

• Autores: Yelopattli Hernández Torres
• Localización: Revista de estudios hispánicos, ISSN 0034-818X, Vol. 53, Nº 2, 2019, págs. 701-725
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The exchange, transfer and circulation of ideas are commonly associated with the Enlightenment period. In the Hispanic context, the translation of medical texts was fundamental to fostering a scientific approach to illnesses and health. In New Spain, excerpts and summaries of these texts were published in the Gazeta de México and the Diario de México, and the contributions of their editors and collaborators show the desire to escape superstition and join the progressive forefront. Childrearing and breastfeeding received ample attention in these periodicals, which used medical texts as sources to promote the practice of breast-feeding. This article argues that the moral aspects of breastfeeding overshadowed its physical advantages, and this notion was disseminated in periodicals and literary pieces in colonial Mexico. Women who did not nurse their own children as well as wet nurses were considered disruptive elements and became the target of the pro-breastfeeding movement that crossed the Atlantic via literature and periodicals