Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance - Tapa dura

Sinopsis

John Riddle uncovers the obscure history of contraception and abortifacients from ancient Egypt to the 17th century with forays into Victorian England. Riddle's thesis is that the ancient world did indeed possess effective (and safe) contraceptives and abortifacients. The author maintains that this rich body of knowledge about fertility control - widely held in the ancient world - was gradually lost over the course of the Middle Ages, becoming nearly extinct by the early modern period. The reasons for this, he suggests, stemmed from changes in the organization of medicine. As university medical training grew increasingly important, physicians' ties with folk traditions were broken. The study of birth control methods was just not part of the curriculum. In one passage, Riddle reveals how Renaissance humanists were ill equipped to provide accurate translations of ancient texts concerning abortifacients due to their limited experience with women's ailments. Much of the knowledge about contraception belonged to an oral culture - a distinctively female-centered culture. From ancient times until the 17th century, women held a monopoly on birthing and the treatment of related matters; information passed from midwife to mother, from mother to daughter. Riddle reflects on the difficulty of finding traces of oral culture and the fact that the little existing evidence is drawn from a distance. Nevertheless, through scholarly sleuthing, the author pieces together the clues and evaluates the scientific merit of these ancient remedies in language that is easily understood by the general reader. His findings should be useful to anyone interested in learning whether it was possible for premodern people to regulate their reproduction without resorting to the extremities of dangerous abortions, the killing of infants, or the denial of biological urges.

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