Menstruation: A Cultural History [Hardcover]

Ranging from Aristotle to twentieth-century gynaecology, contributions to this volume trace the semiotics of menstruation from magical act to evolutionary deficiency. The result is the first comprehensive historical study of how menstruation has been understood within various cultural traditions, with reference to political and social institutions, and medical and religious practices. Includes a guide for scholars on bibliographical and archival sources for the study of menstruation.Notes on Contributors Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction: 'Talking your body's language': The Menstrual Materialisation of Sexed Ontology; A.Shail & G.Howie PART 1: SCIENCE AND MEDICINE Menses in the Corpus Hippocraticum ; L.Arata Menstruation in Aristotle's Concept of the Person; G.Hiltmann The Art and Science of Menstrual Balancing in Early Medieval China; S.Wilms Flowers, Poisons and Men: Menstruation in Medieval Western Europe; M.H.Green The Secrets of Women (c. 1300): A Medieval Perspective on Menstruation; B.Bildhauer Menstrual Knowledge and Medical Practice in Early Modern France, c. 1555-1761; C.McClive Menstruation and Sexual Difference in Early Modern Medicine; M.Stolberg 'I believe it to be a case depending on menstruation': Madness and Menstrual Taboo in British Medical Practice, c. 1840-1930; J-M.Strange Embryological and Agricultural Constructions of the Menstrual Cycle, 1890-1910; H.Blackman Of Sex, Nationalities and Populations: The Construction of Menstruation as a Patho-Physiology; Z.Meghani PART 2: MYTH AND CULTURE Menstrual Misogyny and Taboo: The Medusa, Vampire and the Female Stigmatic; M.Mulvey-Roberts The Swan Maiden's Flight Over Time: Rituals, Fairytales and Matriarchy; J.K.Thomas Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred Power in South India; D.E.Jenett Medieval Responsa Literature On Niddah : Perpetuations of Notions of Tumah ; H.Ner-David 'Let Him Pass for a Man': The Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation in The Merchant of Venice ; lăs