{"product_id":"baptism-through-incision-martha-few-9780271086071","title":"Baptism Through Incision: The Postmortem Cesarean Operation in the Spanish Empire","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1786, Guatemalan priest Pedro José de Arrese published a work instructing readers on their duty to perform the cesarean operation on the bodies of recently deceased pregnant women in order to extract the fetus while it was still alive. Although the fetus's long-term survival was desired, the overarching goal was to cleanse the unborn child of original sin and ensure its place in heaven. \u003ci\u003eBaptism Through Incision\u003c\/i\u003e presents Arrese's complete treatise--translated here into English for the first time--with a critical introduction and excerpts from related primary source texts.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInspired by priests' writings published in Spain and Sicily beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, Arrese and writers like him in Peru, Mexico, Alta California, Guatemala, and the Philippines penned local medico-religious manuals and guides for performing the operation and baptism. Comparing these texts to one another and placing them in dialogue with archival cases and print culture references, this book traces the genealogy of the postmortem cesarean operation throughout the Spanish Empire and reconstructs the transatlantic circulation of obstetrical and scientific knowledge around childbirth and reproduction. In doing so, it shows that knowledge about cesarean operations and fetal baptism intersected with local beliefs and quickly became part of the new ideas and scientific-medical advancements circulating broadly among transatlantic Enlightenment cultures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA valuable resource for scholars and students of colonial Latin American history, the history of medicine, and the history of women, reproduction, and childbirth, \u003ci\u003e Baptism Through Incision\u003c\/i\u003e includes translated excerpts of works by Spanish surgeon Jaime Alcalá y Martínez, Mexican physician Ignacio Segura, and Peruvian friar Francisco González Laguna, as well as late colonial Guatemalan instructions, and newspaper articles published in the \u003ci\u003eGazeta de México\u003c\/i\u003e, the \u003ci\u003eGazeta de Guatemala\u003c\/i\u003e, and the \u003ci\u003eMercurio Peruano\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Martha Few, Zeb Tortorici, Adam Warren\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0271086076\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780271086071\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Penn State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/19\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 152\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.40lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.60w x 0.40d","brand":"Martha Few","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44890902921471,"sku":"9780271086071","price":21.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b880c1f7-0e20-4edd-a894-d7b893c24398.jpg?v=1709740358","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/baptism-through-incision-martha-few-9780271086071","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}