Before the vacation, it is time to make a conclusion
about the conferences in spring and summer 2013. I made a tour from Tucson (Mental
Health, Spirituality,
and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age May 2-6),
via Kalamazoo (International Medieval Congress May 9–12,) to Helsinki (Nordic Medical History conference May 29-
June 1) and finally to my home town Jyväskylä (Gustav Vasa seminar June 11 -12).
The Mental health -conference owes its
existence to Professor Albrecht Classen's initiative and energy.http://aclassen.faculty.arizona.edu/content/program-symposium-mental-health-spirituality-and-religion-2013
Most papers dealt with medieval and early
modern issues from the Early Irish Cult of Brigit to Eva Margaretha Frölich and
Her National Swedish Eschatology in 17th century, but on one
afternoon some scholars were invited from the field of modern psychiatric
fields.
We heard about self-awareness in psychiatry (Viswanathan Rajesh),
using beads (beads of courage) in hospitals (Jean Baruch) and 'Nones' on the
Bus: a Postmodern Perspective on spirituality (Hester Oberman). The idea was
to build bridges between past and present which is not an easy task, but
succeeded pretty well. Discussions were lively and fruitful and at least my
views broadened a lot. We strung beautiful and handmade beads in the workshop
held by Jean Baruch. They are now hanging from my bag as my lucky beads and
reminding me of the role of mind and spirituality in healing. Lovely!
San Xavier del Bac. |
From Tucson, I continued to Kalamazoo. I attended the gigantic congress for the first
time. With hundreds of sessions to choose from, shuttle busses, Fetzer/Schneider/Bernhard areas, lunch tickets and other practicalities I was a
little bit confused, but really enjoyed some sessions. E.g. a session on archeology
and magic was extremely interesting and well-presented. Becoming more and more
material…
Funny
coincidence was that the only Finn in the whole conference besides me (Professor
Helena Halmari from Sam Houston State University, Texas) was in the same session! We both participated in a session
called Multilingualism in the Middle Ages III, organized by Albrecht Classen (he
had three sessions on
multilingualism) and presided by Charles W. Connell. http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/medieval_icms/2013/schedule/348/
Helena Halmari’s paper was On Rhetorical Motivations for Language
Switching in Oxford, MS Bodley 649 while mine discussed Code Switching in Medical Recipes. The third speaker
in our session was Diane P. Auslander whose paper considered Multilingualism in Ireland: Language and
Ethnicity in the Aftermath of Invasion. An interesting session about multicultural
Middle ages.
In
Helsinki, I was equally a first-timer among many medical doctors and
paleopathologists. But we were some humanists and historians, too! http://www.suomenlhs.fi/sessionchart.pdf I presented
a paper about medieval insomnia. Well, I learned a lot of techniques and challenges
of diagnosing past diseases. And this conference was a good example that more
co-operation should and could be done between different disciplines. Studying
only written sources cannot finally tell very much about (medical) past. And
vice versa, bones alone tell only one part of it. But, I have to admit that my
level of knowledge about the material world paleopathologists and archeologists
study increased a good deal.
Finally, in Jyväskylä, at my home university, I was
too exhausted to give a paper which I knew already in advance and therefore, I
was satisfied with what others presented. The theme was the most interesting
concentrating on popular religion, witchcraft and magic. http://gustavvasaseminar2013.blogspot.fi/p/program.html It was very useful
for my work (Medicine without doctors) but I have to admit that I perhaps enjoyed
the most in listening Francesco Piraino &, Laura Zambelli: Mamma Schiavona and Santa Rosalia: Between
Identity and Spirituality, long term
cults of which shape and reception have changed in Italy …
Thank you for organizing such great conferences! It is
certainly a huge work for organizers. Now, it is time to have some rest in
mökki (Finnish cottage in the lake area). Back in conference business in
September (Cultural History Conference in Istanbul) where the theme is Artefacts, culture and identity –
again some material culture! http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-MedAnthro&month=1211&week=d&msg=pZGuK/YhiTAdgzEIOIB/Aw
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