Pregnancy and birth in Maltese tradition

Abstract

The key to the unfolding and understanding of the psychological and sociological matrix of a nation lies in its distant past. It is from this remote point in time, therefore, that we have to take our bearings in our exploratory venture for the practices and beliefs that guided our ancestors in their endeavours to keep the flame of life alive from prehistoric times to our own days. From the evidence of the decoration of the earliest pottery to be found in Malta (Gnar Dalam) it appears that the first inhabitants of the Maltese Islands came from the Stentinello area near Syracuse about the year 2500 B.C. (Trump n.d). Some of the archaeological survivals of this stone-age culture reveal the concern of these early inhabitants with the phenomena of procreation and the propagation of life.