She will give birth immediately: pregnancy and childbirth in medieval Hebrew medical texts produced in the Mediterranean West
Dynamis (Granada)
; 34(2): 377-401, 2014.
Article
in English
| IBECS
| ID: ibc-134734
Responsible library:
ES1.1
Localization: BNCS
ABSTRACT
This essay approaches the medieval Hebrew literature on womens healthcare, with the aim of analysing notions and ideas regarding fertility, pregnancy and childbirth, as conveyed in the texts that form the corpus. Firstly, the work discusses the approach of written texts to pregnancy and childbirth as key elements in the explanation of womens health and the functioning of the female body. In this regard it also explores the role of this approach in the creation of meanings for both the female body and sexual difference. Secondly, it examines female management of pregnancy and childbirth as recorded in Hebrew medical literature. It pays attention to both the attitudes expressed by the authors, translators and copyists regarding female practice, as well as to instances and remedies derived from "local" traditions -that is, from women's experience- in the management of pregnancy and childbirth, also recorded in the texts. Finally, the paper explores how medical theories alien to, or in opposition to, Judaism were adopted or not and, at times, adapted to Jewish notions with the aim of eliminating tensions from the text, on the one hand, and providing Jewish practitioners with adequate training to retain their Christian clientele, on the other (AU)
RESUMEN
No disponible
Full text:
Available
Collection:
National databases
/
Spain
Database:
IBECS
Main subject:
Jews
/
Sex Characteristics
/
Parturition
/
Fertility
/
Literature, Medieval
Limits:
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant, Newborn
/
Pregnancy
Language:
English
Journal:
Dynamis (Granada)
Year:
2014
Document type:
Article
Institution/Affiliation country:
University of Granada/Spain