Women Healers in Medieval Family and Community Life
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Medica: The Society for the Study of Healing in the Middle Ages
Organizer Name
William H. York
Organizer Affiliation
Portland State Univ.
Presider Name
Linda Migl Keyser
Presider Affiliation
Medica
Paper Title 1
Theodora and the Mystery of Justinian's Cure, Solved
Presenter 1 Name
Ruth Dwyer
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Harvard Univ.
Paper Title 2
Hildegard's Heterodoxy: Sources and the Application of Lapidary Knowledge in Physica
Presenter 2 Name
Nichola Harris
Presenter 2 Affiliation
SUNY-Ulster
Start Date
9-5-2019 3:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1160
Description
Both historical and fictional, textual and artistic representations portray medieval women performing a customary domestic responsibility, treating illness and injury among their family and neighbors. This session seeks papers that enlarge typical characterizations by offering insight into the contributions and practices of female healers as they functioned in the day-day reality of medieval life. Not limited to midwifery, the health care activities of medieval laywomen, noblewomen, and religious women included surgery and bloodletting, therapeutic treatments, herbalism, practical nursing, and disposal of the dead. Paper proposals are invited that examine training, treatments, historical records, legal status, and individual figures, both professional and non-professional. In addition, papers are encouraged to examine the textual and empirical sources of information employed by medieval female healers, such as botanicals, late medieval self-help texts, medical texts and teaching manuals, traditional home recipe texts, native intelligence, and apprenticeships. As in the past, Medica encourages interdisciplinary perspectives that explore medieval female health care providers across the cultural spectrum of history, literature, and art. William H. York
Women Healers in Medieval Family and Community Life
Schneider 1160
Both historical and fictional, textual and artistic representations portray medieval women performing a customary domestic responsibility, treating illness and injury among their family and neighbors. This session seeks papers that enlarge typical characterizations by offering insight into the contributions and practices of female healers as they functioned in the day-day reality of medieval life. Not limited to midwifery, the health care activities of medieval laywomen, noblewomen, and religious women included surgery and bloodletting, therapeutic treatments, herbalism, practical nursing, and disposal of the dead. Paper proposals are invited that examine training, treatments, historical records, legal status, and individual figures, both professional and non-professional. In addition, papers are encouraged to examine the textual and empirical sources of information employed by medieval female healers, such as botanicals, late medieval self-help texts, medical texts and teaching manuals, traditional home recipe texts, native intelligence, and apprenticeships. As in the past, Medica encourages interdisciplinary perspectives that explore medieval female health care providers across the cultural spectrum of history, literature, and art. William H. York