There’s something going on here about how we don’t want to take full responsibility for our decisions; we don’t want to think through the issues properly, instead bringing in some text from the past as if it is entirely without its own historical context.
Category: death
The history of cancer: Part 3
(I was asked to make three short videos on the history of cancer, for the excellent liberal arts college, Gustavus Adolphus, where I spent a year. The theme of their annual Nobel Conference for 2020 was Cancer in the Age of Biotechnology. The videos are available here but if you prefer to read things, here… Continue reading The history of cancer: Part 3
The histories of miscarriage and stillbirth
Three children who died too young: what can they tell us about how we frame and then answer our questions about the past?
Gendered flesh, prolapse and ‘sex change’: the case of Phaethousa
‘Her body was masculinized (τό τε σῶμα ἠνδρώθη)’. This is one aspect of the description of Phaethousa of Abdera, who features in one of the Hippocratic ‘case histories’ from probably the fourth century BC. When her husband leaves, or goes into exile, this previously fecund woman stops menstruating and experiences a range of symptoms, including… Continue reading Gendered flesh, prolapse and ‘sex change’: the case of Phaethousa
Birth and risk: perceiving risk in historical societies
How can you work out past societies' awareness of risk, before stats come along to help? How was risk handled in ancient Greece?
Mistaking histories 