¿Qué es la sobada? Elementos para conocer y entender una práctica terapéutica en Yucatán

Abstract

“Sobada” is one of the most popular massage techniques in the Yucatan state of Mexico, particularly linked with Mayan women’s pregnancy and reproductive health. At first, it could look like a simple massage technique, but it has deep symbolic meanings that influence the local representation of body and birth. Sobada, in fact, has gained new and unexpected meanings in the context of growing medicalization of birth. Sobada interweaves many different meanings: reproductive ones, cognitives ones (representations of the body), political ones (control of feminine body), medical ones (the relationship between native medical knowledge and BioMedicine) and pragmatical ones (defense of the role of midwives who practice such massage). The author’s paper focuses mostly on this last aspect, analizing the perspective of the women of the village of Kaua. These women are convinced, in fact, that sobada massage can prevent cesarean sections.