Welcome to the Häme Medieval Fair this weekend! We'll have a little workshop on archeology and writing with a mini-excavation and medieval writing tools such as wax-tablets, quills and pieces of parchment. Exciting!
Häme Medieval Fair
Glossa
Medicine Without Doctors
perjantai 16. elokuuta 2013
keskiviikko 10. heinäkuuta 2013
Medieval ditch medicine
This morning, when walking the dog, I saw several
plants used for healing purposes in the Middle ages. Chamomile (Matricaria
chamomilla), tansy (Tanacetum vulgare),
gout weed, (Aegopodium podagraria), and nettle (Urtica dioica) grow side by side in a ditch (around the outskirts
of a nearby forest) as they probably did in the Middle ages and were thus
available for practically everybody.
Chamomile or more exactly German chamomile has been
used by many cultures for gastrointestinal disorders as well as skin conditions. It was employed in ancient Egypt and in the
Middle ages chamomile was used as a diuretic (to rid the body of excess water) and a tonic to manage pain and fatigue.
Tansy has also a long history of use. It has been employed as a medicine and an insect repellent. It is known that tansy was cultivated by the ancient
Greeks for medicinal purposes. In the early Middle ages, it was grown in the
herb gardens of monasteries, e.g. by Benedictines of Saint Gall. Tansy was used
to treat intestinal worms, rheumatism, digestive problems, fevers, and sores. Hildegard
von Bingen says: “Whoever suffers from catarrh and has a cough, let him
eat tansy. It will bind humors so that they do not overflow, and thus will
lessen."
Chamomile and tansy. |
In addition, it was
considered that tansy has virtues in reproductive matters. It was believed to help women conceive and to prevent miscarriages. Contradictorily, large doses were believed to induce abortions. In skincare,
tansy was used as a face wash and was reported to lighten and purify the skin. Tansy is also reputed as an insect repellent in different cultures, e.g. in medieval Europe and apparently
among American Indians.Goutweed was cultivated during the Middle Ages for use as a vegetable, pot herb and for its medicinal use against gout, hence goutweed. Its Latin name, aegopodium podagraria, includes the name of the disease, podagra. It is said to have been introduced by the monastics of the Middle Ages, who cultivated it as a herb of healing. Therefore, it was called Bishopsweed and Bishopswort and it was frequently found near old monastery ruins. It was also called herba (Sancti) Gerardi, after Gerardus (St. Gerard) †1120 founder of the Knights of St. John. Herb was dedicated to St. Gerard, who was invoked to cure the gout, against which the herb was chiefly employed.
Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica and the closely related Urtica
urens) has a long medicinal history. In medieval Europe, it was used as a
diuretic and to treat painful muscles and joints, eczema, arthritis, gout,
anemia, sores, and bleeding.
Conferences, spring-summer 2013
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
perjantai 7. kesäkuuta 2013
Medicine without doctors: sexuality, sleep and sound mind.
Determinants of health in medieval vernacular remedy tradition.Post-doctoral research project, funded by the Academy of Finland 2012-2015
Susanna Niiranen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
When public health care was nearly inexistent and physicians were scarce,
health and wellbeing were in the hands of diverse healers. In the Middle ages,
healing and care were provided in domestic sphere and in monasteries, but also
in towns and villages by more or less professional practicians, such as
priests, clerks, notaries, apothecaries, midwives, textile artisans, pepperers,
herbalists, itinerant drink sellers and bone-settlers.
Plenty of medicines, cures and therapies have survived in written medicinal
recipe collections. In this project, I focus on recipe collections written in
vernacular languages which often represent a more popular register than
theoretical university medicine. However, genres often overlap in medical
recipes and I regard recipe collections as a crossroads atwhich various cultural aspects (traditionally described
by such pairs as high-low, professional-lay, learned-popular, written-oral,
Latin-vernacular) encounter one another.
The project attempts to complement the image of medieval medical knowledge
focusing on three conditions releaving medic(in)al attitudes towards the
relation between illness and health, normality and deviancy: sexuality, sleep
and mental health. This is done in the context of res non-naturales or
determinants of health, a concept related to a well-known medical theory. In
standard medieval form, determinants of health included climate; food and
drink; movement and rest; sleep and wakefulness; elimination and retention; and
the emotions. Coitus and bathing were often added to the list. The question
goes: are these notions similar in a more popular register which vernacular
medicine often represents? If so, what does it tell about medieval healing
practices? And what does it tell about transmission of knowledge and medieval
text production?
Related
publications:
Niiranen,
S. (2011). `The Authority of words. The healing power of vernacular, Latin and
other languages in an. Occitan remedy collection.´ In Mirator vol. 12 http://www.glossa.fi/mirator/pdf/i-2011/theauthorityofwords.pdf
Niiranen, S. (2012). Äidiksi
tulon pelkoja keskiajalla. [Pain, sorrow and shame. Fear of maternity in
the Middle Ages]. In P. Saarimäki, H.
Niskanen, & K.-M. Hytönen (Eds.), Lapsi matkalla maailmaan [The child en route
to the world]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, pp. 51–81.
Niiranen, S.
(2013). Healing words. Cultural and linguistic co-existence through word magic
in Occitan medical recipes of the thirteenth century. Coexistence and
cooperation in the middle ages. IV European Congress of Medieval Studies
F.I.D.E.M. (Federation Internationale des Instituts d’Études Medievales),
Palermo 23-37 june 2009, a cura di A. Musco e G. Musotto, Officina di Studi
Medievali, Palermo 2012, pp. 979–992.
Forthcoming:
Niiranen, S.
Mental disorders in late medieval remedy collections: a comparison of Occitan
and Swedish material. In Mental
(Dis)orders in the late Middle Ages. Sari Katajala-Peltomaa & Susanna
Niiranen (eds.). Brill: Leiden.
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