10 Fascinating Origin Stories of Periods
There are plenty of odd cultural taboos surrounding menstruation, from the isolation of menstruating people in special shelters to avoid “menstrual pollution” to forbidding them from cooking for fear they would sour the food.
These restrictions are rooted in a lot of misconceptions about periods, primarily the notion that they are dirty. But where exactly did this idea come from? In celebration of Women’s History Month, here are 10 mythical origin stories for periods.
10. Menstrual Flow as Part of the God Indra’s Guilt
Rigveda, a Hindu scripture comprised of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, tells the story of Indra, the god of war and weather, who battled against Vritra, son of Tvastr, himself a brahmin, or most supreme being. When Indra finally killed Vritra, he was entrapped by a creature taking the form of a terrifying woman, a Brahmahatya who was the personification of the sin of having killed a brahmin, which was a big no-no.
Brahma, the supreme deity of all, helped Indra out of his predicament by figuring out a place for Brahmahatya to stay. These included the fire god Agni, trees, grass, and the river, which she was essentially split between. In one version of the story, one of those places is decided by Brahmahatya herself, who declared she would live inside young women full of pride and that she would destroy their pride by causing them menstruation.
9. Menstruation as Māui’s Immortality
The story of the demi-god Māui’s search for immortality explains why ‘māui’ is a Ngāi Tūhoe word that means menstruation. When Māui observed that Hina-te-iwa-iwa, the moon goddess, could achieve continuity by waxing and waning every month, it inspired him to strive for immortality by returning to the womb of the goddess Hine-nui-te-po-te-ao.
Māui climbed up to Hine-nui-te-po-te-ao’s thighs and the Tiwaiwaka (fantail) woke her as he tried to make his way back into her groin. When she asked what he was doing, Māui explained that he wanted to be like the Moon, immortal. Hine-nui-tepo-te-ao refused to return him to the womb and instead crushed him and made him the first menstruation. So long as people menstruate, Māui will live on.
8. Menarche as Defloration
While some cultures forbade sex during menstruation, others would use the occasion of a person’s first period to engage in ritual defloration. Part of the reason for this is rooted in the belief that the menarche was itself a form of defloration. This meant that no distinction was made between the blood from menstruation and hymenal blood.
In Thailand, it was believed that when someone had their first period, it was a result of losing their virginity to one of a host of aerial spirits. She would thus be referred to as a “bride”. Every subsequent menstruation was therefore seen as her having more sex with more spirits.
7. Menstruating as an Omen
Before the mid-18th century, it was not understood that menstruation was related to ovulation. As such, a person’s period was only understood as a phenomenon in which they bled from their vagina, with bleeding generally recognized as a thing that happens in response to something harmful. This and the symptoms related to menstruating, cramps, and feeling sick, led people in South Asian countries to think of periods as indicative of something bad happening.
They typically viewed the period as meaning that the person having it was morally impure. Because the period was seen as a negative thing happening to someone, it was thought to be a bad omen. The conclusion people came to because of this was that menstruating people can bring harm and suffering to those around them and that anything the person came into contact with while on their period would be polluted or corrupted.
6. Periods as Built-Up Humors
In 5th/4th century BCE Hippocratic texts, it is said that women’s flesh is more permeable than men’s, and as such it absorbs more fluid from food and beverages, which then built up throughout the month in the form of humors. These weren’t saying women were super funny, humors were thought to be vital bodily fluids. Periods were therefore the body’s way of cleansing itself. If the woman did not have her period or did not bleed heavily enough, it was thought she would get sick from the blood rotting or going somewhere in the body it was not supposed to.
The ancient Greek philosopher Galen posited that women were more likely to build up these humors because of their lazy and idle lifestyles and that menstruation relieved them of the ensuing buildup while also acting as a punishment for being so indolent.
5. Menstruation as a Source of Destructive Power
In cultures like the Huaulu of Indonesia and the Dogon of Mali that incorporated the use of “menstrual seclusion”, a ritual of having those who were menstruating isolated and forbidden to leave or look upon things like water or the sky, they believed menstruation was a form of destructive power granted to women.
When they noticed that the timing of many menstrual cycles coincided with the dark of the moon, they therefore assumed menstruation itself was the source of darkness. When their cycle ended, they would emerge from seclusion into the light, reinforcing the idea that the end of the menstruation cycle meant the creation of light. Because these women were thought to create light and darkness, they were also assumed to be able to destroy light. To prevent the destruction of light, menstruants were not allowed to look upon the light.
To some Native American tribes in California, girls menstruating were thought to possess some kind of supernatural power, leading her to be secluded and forbidden from looking at the world around her, lest she destroy it and the sun and moon.
4. Menstruating as Losing Qi
While Buddhism generally holds that menstruation is simply a natural excretion that women go through every month, it also posits that during menstruation women lose Qi. Qi, or chi, is considered to be life force, or spiritual energy, and part of everything in existence.
Another Buddhist belief holds that because ghosts consume blood, that menstruating women therefore attract ghosts. As such women on their periods are thought to be a danger to themselves and others.
3. Menstruation as a Curse
While the Bible specifically notes that it is the pain of childbirth that women should be cursed with as a result of Eve’s transgressions, it does not explicitly state that menstruation is also a curse. That doesn’t necessarily let periods off the hook for being considered curses in Christian and Jewish teachings.
Biblical commentators, like Pope Gregory in the sixth century, have associated periods with this curse placed on Eve, likely because of the pain involved in the menstrual cramps women experience. As a result, many Bible readers have come to interpret menstruation as one of God’s curses placed on women as punishment for Eve eating the forbidden fruit and tempting Adam in Genesis.
2. Menstrual Cycles as a Source of Uncleanliness
Speaking of the Bible, part of the reason why menstrual cycles have been interpreted as being a curse is that canonically they are considered unclean.
In Leviticus 15, it is stated, “The woman, who at the return of the month, hath her issue of blood, shall be separated seven days. Every one that toucheth her, shall be unclean until the evening. And every thing that she sleepeth on, or that she sitteth on in the days of her separation, shall be defiled. He that toucheth her bed shall wash his clothes: and being himself washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening.
“Whosoever shall touch any vessel on which she sitteth, shall wash his clothes: and himself being washed with water, shall be defiled until the evening. If a man copulateth with her in the time of her flowers, he shall be unclean seven days: and every bed on which he shall sleep shall be defiled. The woman that hath an issue of blood many days out of her ordinary time, or that ceaseth not to flow after the monthly courses, as long as she is subject to this disease, shall be unclean, in the same manner as if she were in her flowers. Every bed on which she sleepeth, and every vessel on which she sitteth, shall be defiled. Whosoever toucheth them shall wash his clothes: and himself being washed with water, shall be unclean until the evening.”
Seven days after the woman’s period ended, she could then offer two turtles or two young pigeons to a priest, which he could use as an offering in prayer for her state of impurity.
1. Menstruation as Moon Time
In some indigenous cultures like the Yurok tribe and the Minnesota Ojibwe, menstruation is known as “moon time”. During this period (hurr), women’s bodies are thought to be synced with the moon and as a result, she is at the height of her powers, in the Yurok tradition. Her period is considered a way of getting rid of the accumulated stress and experience of being a woman, according to the Ojibwe. Sometimes they perform spiritual bathing rituals in a “sacred moon time pond.”
In these cultures, women do not isolate themselves to avoid corrupting or dirtying others, but rather to free themselves of distractions for this process and to reflect on their lives.
