Birth Rituals - Codex Mendoza [Painting]

The image from the Codex Mendoza (produced ca. 1535-1550) describes the Aztec birth ritual of bathing and naming the child, which, according to accounts from the 16th century, was usually held on the fourth day after birth. It was attended by the parents and kin, who gathered in the house before sunrise to feast and observe the ceremony. The midwife who aided the birth conducted the ceremony, and she is shown holding the infant. After consulting with the tonalpouhqui, a person knowledgeable in the sacred books would determine the sign of the child based on the moment of birth.

The image is a narrative, showing a sequence of events through the use of multiple images connected by dotted lines. The midwife took the infant from the cradle near its mother and carried it to a pottery vessel filled with water, placed on a mat. The midwife's counterclockwise footprints circle the mat, where two sets of symbolic objects are placed. Male infants were given a shield and arrows, tools for wood-, feather-, and metal-work, and the scribe's implements (depicted above the mat). Female children were given domestic objects: a broom, a reed basket and a spindle (depicted below the mat). The midwife performed four rituals with the water: she invoked the goddess of water and put drops of water on the baby's mouth, telling it to receive the water it needs to live upon the earth; she touched the baby's chest with her wet hand and invoked the purifying property of water that cleans the heart; she cast drops of water on the baby's head, telling the baby to let the water enter its body to dwell there. Finally, the midwife washed the child's body to keep evil away from it. After these four rites, a boy child was presented to the sky four times, calling on the sun and the astral gods, asking that he become a warrior. A girl child was not presented to the sky—a masculine god, but after the washing the midwife spoke to the cradle asking the protection of the mother goddess. Following the ceremony, the baby was given a name, often one based on the day and time of birth.

Codex Mendoza, prepared on the order of Don Antonio de Mendoza, Viceroy of New Spain, for the Emperor Charles V., Mexico; c. 1535-50, Bodleian Library, MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1, fol. 57r. Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Dana Leibsohn

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Postcard of Women and Girls with Cradleboard, Temuco, Chile [Object]

This postcard, from the early 20th century, shows a group of women and children, most likely belonging to the Mapuche people. The Mapuche occupied a large area in the cone of South America, the territory of the current nations of Chile and Argentina. Indigenous American tribes were popular subjects for postcards around the turn of the 20th century, and a large subgroup of postcards portrayed babies in cradleboards—called "papooses."

One of the women is holding a cradleboard upright in front of her, and another is holding a young girl by the hand. The use of cradleboards was widespread among indigenous American ethnic and tribal groups. With variations in the shape of the board, the use of fabrics and lacings to bind the child onto the board, and the arrangement of the protective hoods, cradleboards display remarkable uniformity across North and South America. One postcard legend described this variation on the worldwide practice of swaddling infants: "the Cradle of the Indian children consists of a board made of slats, with hood of same material or wicker. the youngster being bound with bands there to uncomfortable in appearance yet the children seem fat and happy. they are usually carried on their mothers back wrapped in a bright shawl.[sic]"

The postcards—some with black-and-white or color-retouched photographs, and others as color lithographs—often featured captions intended to be humorous, such as "An Embryonic Warrior" or "Snug as a Bug in a Rug." One postcard of a Navaho papoose from the popular publisher Fred Harvey contained a printed legend commenting on indigenous American childrearing practices: "The Navaho child is seldom punished for the simple reason that he seldom requires it. There appears to be a bond of sympathy and love between parent and child which is very strong during the minority of the child, but strange to say the children do not always love and protect their parents when the latter become old and infirm."

"Papoose Cradleboards of the Nations," Betty's Postcard Album, <a class="external" href="http://gelean.tripod.com/papoose.html">http://gelean.tripod.com/papoose.html</a> (accessed August 31, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Swaddled Children Terra Cotta Bas-Reliefs [Architecture]

These images of swaddled infants come from a series of 10 glazed terra cotta bas-reliefs known as the "bambini." Andrea della Robbia sculpted them between 1463 and 1466 to adorn the Ospedale degli Innocenti, or Foundling Hospital, in Florence, Italy. The images show a sequence of childhood stages, from a tightly swaddled newborn to a child liberated from bindings that gradually loosen and fall aside. The images reflect the practice of confining infants’ bodies in tightly wound strips of cloth, which can be found on images of infants in many world regions and cultures.

The Silk Guild of Florence, responsible for foundling care in Florence starting in 1294, commissioned architect Filippo Brunelleschi to build a sanctuary for foundlings in 1419. The building featured a door—la routa—with a rotating stone platform where individuals could anonymously leave infants for charitable foster care until 1875. The Ospedale degli Innocenti as an institution provided continuous care for infants and children for more than five centuries. The image of the liberated child in the 2nd roundel from the left has been used as the official insignia of the American Association of Pediatrics since 1955.

Images courtesy of "Hospital of Innocenti Gallery," Museums in Florence, <a class="external" href="http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/ospedale_degli_innocenti.html">http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/ospedale_degli_innocenti.html</a> (accessed August 31, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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World War II American Soldiers and a Bengali Child [Photographs]

These photographs are among a series of fifteen taken in 1945 by U.S. soldier Glenn S. Hensley. Hensley was a professional photographer participating in aerial surveillance of Burma for the U.S. Army. The images illustrate an encounter between Hensley and four fellow U.S. airmen with the residents of the village of Kharagpur, West Bengal. Some of the photographs have significant annotations that reveal how they and the people they encountered felt about their interactions. The airmen had access to darkroom facilities, so they were able to show the results of the encounter to Mukta and her father, whom they report as being very proud. The response of the other villagers is shown in their gathering at the scene. The collection of nearly 600 photographs and notes were prepared by Hensley for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.

Glenn S. Hensley, "New Sari," http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/hensley_search.html?depth=details&id=k006; "New Sari," http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/hensley_search.html?depth=details&id=k008; "Mukhta and father," http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/hensley_search.html?depth=details&id=k009, Digital South Asia Library (accessed June 3, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Children Working in a Village [Photographs]

These photographs are included in an archive with over 600 images all taken by U.S. airman Glenn S. Hensley in 1945 in various locations where he was stationed. The island of Akyab in the Bay of Bengal, which is called Sittwe today, was occupied during World War II, first by the Japanese, then, in 1945, by the British and the Americans. It was a strategically important airfield from which supplies could be airlifted into Burma. These are two of a series of photographs documenting four different ways in which children pounded or ground grain for use. These small children wielded heavy hardwood implements for hulling rice or grinding grain. The tools have a timeless quality and show obvious signs of constant use. Similarly, the chores that the village children carry out in these images, and drawing water in others, were typical children's activities.

Hensley served the U.S. Army as a professional reconnaissance photographer. He and other American photographers Robert Keagle and Frank Bond had access to darkroom facilities, and often accompanied one another on photo excursions among civilians, so that each man's archive contains shots of the same scenes and people. For this reason, it is likely that wherever they went, "everyday" scenes took on an extraordinary quality for the people depicted. The archive, according to Hensley, was created and shipped to the U.S. for his wife to use in teaching world history courses in Missouri during World War II.

"The Digital South Asia Library - Details for four forms of grinding grain" http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/hensley_search.html?depth=details&id=a035; "The Digital South Asia Library - Details for four forms of grinding grain" http://dsal.uchicago.edu/images/hensley/hensley_search.html?depth=details&id=a036, Digital South Asia Library (accessed May 22, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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“No Child’s Play”

Carlisle Indian School Students [Photograph]

The photograph shows buildings and students of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School around 1900. Attended by over 12,000 Native American children from more than 140 tribes between 1879 and 1918, the school was the model for nearly 150 Indian schools. Its founder was U.S. Army officer Richard Henry Pratt, who commanded a unit of African American "Buffalo Soldiers" and Indian scouts in Oklahoma and witnessed the Bureau of Indian Affair’s irresponsible policies on reservations. In 1875, the Army placed Platt in charge of 72 Indian warriors imprisoned in Florida. Platt imposed military discipline on the prisoners, but also arranged to teach them to read.

Based on this experience, he developed a scheme to assimilate Indians by removing them from tribal influences and transforming them through education. In 1879, Pratt secured permission to use a deserted military base in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, as the site of his school. Platt expressed his educational philosophy, highlighted in the accompanying quotation, in a paper read at an 1892 convention. Today, one of the few remaining landmarks of the Carlisle Indian School is the cemetery for students who died at the school and whose remains could not be returned to their families.

"Carlisle Indian Industrial School History," <a class="external" href="http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html">http://home.epix.net/~landis/histry.html</a>. Text: "'Kill the Indian, and Save the Man:' Capt. Richard H. Pratt on the Education of Native Americans," <a class="external" href="http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/">http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4929/</a>. (accessed August 1, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Carlisle Indian Industrial School Group Photos [Photographs]

The two group portraits, taken at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, show Chiricahua Apache boys and girls at the time of their arrival in November 1886, and four months after arriving, in March 1887. John N. Choate was commissioned by the school to make portraits of the students as a public relations effort showing the success of the school in assimilating the Indians. Attended by over 12,000 Native American children from more than 140 tribes between 1879 and 1918, Carlisle was the model for nearly 150 Indian schools. Upon arrival, school officials cut the children's hair and exchanged their clothing for uniforms. Students were given Christian names, and were punished for speaking their native languages. Note the changes in dress, hair, and skin color, possibly due to the climate and to the emphasis on indoor activities. This group belonged to the Chiricahua Apache tribe, whose leader, the famous Geronimo, had surrendered with his followers in September 1886, marking the end of the Apache wars. The band, including 103 children, was taken prisoner and sent to Florida; many of the children were then taken to Carlisle School.

The students' names on the arrival photograph were recorded as (back row, left to right): Hugh Chee, Frederick Eskelsejah (Fred' k Eskelsijah), Clement Seanilzay, Samson Noran, Ernest Hogee. Middle row: Margaret Y. Nadasthilah. (front row): Humphrey Escharzay, Beatrice Kiahtel, Janette Pahgostatum, Bishop Eatennah, Basil Ekarden. A numbered version of the photograph exists. The photographer arranged the students in the same order in the later portrait. Scholars note that the "after" portraits followed established conventions of middle-class portraiture of the period, emphasizing the civilizing mission of the school. School founder Richard Platt described this goal in an 1892 speech "all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man."

November 1886 photograph, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C, <a class="external" href="http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=318925&catids=4&sdate=1875&edate=1900&src=1-5&page=4">http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=318925&catids=4&sdate=1875&edate=1900&src=1-5&page=4</a>; March 1887 photograph, National Museum of the American Indian, Washington D.C., <a class="external" href="http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=318898&catids=4&sdate=1875&edate=1900&src=1-5&page=4">http://www.nmai.si.edu/searchcollections/item.aspx?irn=318898&catids=4&sdate=1875&edate=1900&src=1-5&page=4</a> (accessed July 28, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Immigrant Crossing Road Sign [Newspaper Article and Photograph]

Interstate 5 runs from the Mexican/U.S. border crossing at San Ysidro, California, to the Peace Arch Crossing into Canada at Blaine, Washington. This official yellow warning road sign is posted along Interstate 5 near the San Ysidro crossing and north of San Diego. The sign shows a man and a woman running as the woman pulls a girl with pigtails along, her feet barely touching the ground. San Ysidro is the world's busiest land border crossing, with more than 17 million vehicles and 50 million people crossing legally in 2005. The California Department of Transportation, or Caltrans, developed this warning sign after more than 100 undocumented immigrants were killed on the highway, especially near border control points. After trying a wordy and ineffective sign that read, "Caution Watch for People Crossing Road," Caltrans assigned graphic artist John Hood, a Vietnam veteran of Navaho parentage, to develop the new sign. Posted in 1990, it quickly became a cultural icon for those who tolerate and those who oppose immigration, both legal and illegal.

Migration in borderlands such as the California/Mexico crossing have attracted academic attention as a phenomenon of globalization. In 1990 and 1991, almost 3.5 million immigrants were admitted legally to the United States—a number larger than at any previous point in American history, and as of 2009, over 25 million people in the U.S. are foreign born, excluding illegal immigrants. In some urban Southern California counties, the majority of residents are immigrants, and many of these are children who require schooling, health care, and other services. Academic study of immigration tracks both the reception of immigrants among the resident population, and the interaction of the immigrants with the destination country. Of the 24 million Americans in the United States today who migrated since 1960, 40% came as children.

Leslie Berestein, "Highway safety sign becomes running story on immigration," The San Diego Union Tribune, April 10, 2005. Available online (accessed July 1, 2009). Photograph by permission, Copyright Roger J. Wendell, http://www.rogerwendell.com/images/photography/immigrant_crossing_san_diego_03-18-2004.jpg (accessed July 1, 2009).

Susan Douglass

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Christmas Poem, Pima Indian School, 1917 [Object]

The poem and photographic collage is the work of students at the Pima Indian School boarding school near Phoenix, Arizona, and is part of an album probably owned by the school matron. The school was one of some 150 institutions for Indian wards of the U.S. Government. The boys' poem was dedicated to their Matron, a female official who was responsible for supervision and discipline of the students on a day-to-day basis. The school's mission was to "civilize" and assimilate the Indians to American society through a process of education that sought to obliterate their native cultures. The model of organization and discipline was military. Student life was highly regimented, with little free time, uniforms and marching drills. Boys and girls were subject to whipping and jailing. It is notable that the matron herself would not actually carry out the punishments she ordered; older students selected as "officers" often did so. Students at the Pima Indian School performed school maintenance, cleaning, cooking, laundering, and caring for the animals and crops that provided students and teachers with food. Students were also put out to work as domestics and farm laborers, for further acculturation and to provide work experience. School officials did not envision preparing them for higher education.

The decorated poem as an object is notable for its penmanship and skill in use of language. The photographs of the boys' heads pasted around the poem indicate that students had access to copies of group photographs, since they are all wearing uniform caps. The poem's tone is both ironic and affectionate toward the matron and the school, incorporating language that indicates exposure to American customs and domestic habits, such as the Christmas holiday, mention of loafing, castor oil and germs. The language is revealing of the tension between the boys' obedience to the matron and assertion of individuality and group solidarity, and their perception of the social context of the school expressed in recognition of the matron's “worry of the whole red race.”

Photograph courtesy of Jeremy Rowe. Cited in Eric Margolis and Jeremy Rowe, "Images of assimilation: photographs of Indian schools in Arizona," History of Education 33, no. 2 (March 2004) 199–230.

Susan Douglass

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