Nations are viewed as masculine or feminine (Germany the Fatherland, India the Motherland); one's native or first tongue, however, always seems to be conceptualised as feminine as one's mother tongue. From a historical perspective, this is not very surprising since in most epochs women have been regarded not only as the material or biological reproducers of children, who will later be introduced into the 'correct' way of life with the established rites, but also the symbolic transmitters of the heritage and the norms of their culture. Traditionally, therefore, women exist at the ambivalent intersection between 'nature' and 'culture', and they are represented as 'authentically' feminine only to the extent that they are able to properly fulfil this dual role of being both biological and cultural reproducers.