Forgotten Healers

Download or read book Forgotten Healers written by Sharon T. Strocchia and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize A new history uncovers the crucial role women played in the great transformations of medical science and health care that accompanied the Italian Renaissance. In Renaissance Italy women played a more central role in providing health care than historians have thus far acknowledged. Women from all walks of life—from household caregivers and nurses to nuns working as apothecaries—drove the Italian medical economy. In convent pharmacies, pox hospitals, girls’ shelters, and homes, women were practitioners and purveyors of knowledge about health and healing, making significant contributions to early modern medicine. Sharon Strocchia offers a wealth of new evidence about how illness was diagnosed and treated, whether by noblewomen living at court or poor nurses living in hospitals. She finds that women expanded on their roles as health care providers by participating in empirical work and the development of scientific knowledge. Nuns, in particular, were among the most prominent manufacturers and vendors of pharmaceutical products. Their experiments with materials and techniques added greatly to the era’s understanding of medical care. Thanks to their excellence in medicine urban Italian women had greater access to commerce than perhaps any other women in Europe. Forgotten Healers provides a more accurate picture of the pursuit of health in Renaissance Italy. More broadly, by emphasizing that the frontlines of medical care are often found in the household and other spaces thought of as female, Strocchia encourages us to rethink the history of medicine.

Download or read book Forgotten Healers written by Sharon T. Strocchia and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-12-17 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize A new history uncovers the crucial role women played in the great transformations of medical science and health care that accompanied the Italian Renaissance. In Renaissance Italy women played a more central role in providing health care than historians have thus far acknowledged. Women from all walks of life—from household caregivers and nurses to nuns working as apothecaries—drove the Italian medical economy. In convent pharmacies, pox hospitals, girls’ shelters, and homes, women were practitioners and purveyors of knowledge about health and healing, making significant contributions to early modern medicine. Sharon Strocchia offers a wealth of new evidence about how illness was diagnosed and treated, whether by noblewomen living at court or poor nurses living in hospitals. She finds that women expanded on their roles as health care providers by participating in empirical work and the development of scientific knowledge. Nuns, in particular, were among the most prominent manufacturers and vendors of pharmaceutical products. Their experiments with materials and techniques added greatly to the era’s understanding of medical care. Thanks to their excellence in medicine urban Italian women had greater access to commerce than perhaps any other women in Europe. Forgotten Healers provides a more accurate picture of the pursuit of health in Renaissance Italy. More broadly, by emphasizing that the frontlines of medical care are often found in the household and other spaces thought of as female, Strocchia encourages us to rethink the history of medicine.

Download or read book Panaceia's Daughters written by Alisha Rankin and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-03-19 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Panaceia’s Daughters provides the first book-length study of noblewomen’s healing activities in early modern Europe. Drawing on rich archival sources, Alisha Rankin demonstrates that numerous German noblewomen were deeply involved in making medicines and recommending them to patients, and many gained widespread fame for their remedies. Turning a common historical argument on its head, Rankin maintains that noblewomen’s pharmacy came to prominence not in spite of their gender but because of it. Rankin demonstrates the ways in which noblewomen’s pharmacy was bound up in notions of charity, class, religion, and household roles, as well as in expanding networks of knowledge and early forms of scientific experimentation. The opening chapters place noblewomen’s healing within the context of cultural exchange, experiential knowledge, and the widespread search for medicinal recipes in early modern Europe. Case studies of renowned healers Dorothea of Mansfeld and Anna of Saxony then demonstrate the value their pharmacy held in their respective roles as elderly widow and royal consort, while a study of the long-suffering Duchess Elisabeth of Rochlitz emphasizes the importance of experiential knowledge and medicinal remedies to the patient’s experience of illness.

Download or read book Ashkenazi Herbalism written by Deatra Cohen and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive guide to the medicinal plant knowledge of Ashkenazi herbal healers--from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Until now, the herbal traditions of the Ashkenazi people have remained unexplored and shrouded in mystery. Ashkenazi Herbalism rediscovers the forgotten legacy of the Jewish medicinal plant healers who thrived in Eastern Europe's Pale of Settlement, from their beginnings in the Middle Ages through the modern era. Including the first materia medica of 26 plants and herbs essential to Ashkenazi folk medicine, Ashkenazi Herbalism sheds light on the preparations, medicinal profiles, and applications of a rich but previously unknown herbal tradition--one hidden by language barriers, obscured by cultural misunderstandings, and nearly lost to history. Written for new and established practitioners, it offers illustrations, provides information on comparative medicinal practices, and illuminates the important historical and cultural contexts that gave rise to Eastern European Jewish herbalism. Part I introduces a brief history of the Ashkenazim and provides an overview of traditional medicine among Eastern European Jews. Part II offers a comparative overview of healing customs among Jews of the Pale of Settlement, their many native plants, and the remedies applied by local healers to treat a range of illnesses. This materia medica names each plant in Yiddish, English, Latin, and other relevant languages, and the book also details a brief history of medicine; the roles of the ba'alei shem, feldshers, opshprekherins, midwives, and brewers; and the remedy books used by Jewish healers.

Download or read book The Making of a Healer written by Russell FourEagles and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2014-11-04 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once Oneida healer Russell FourEagles (Atuneyute Keya) went to see his friend Bob, whom doctors had declared incurably paralyzed following a stroke. Within minutes of FourEagles’ attention, Bob was kicking the covers off the bed. “You should write a book!” Bob later encouraged. And here it is. FourEagles’ grandparents escaped the reservation-school education that obliterated Native American culture, preserving the healing abilities that can be traced in an unbroken lineage back two hundred grandmothers. In The Making of a Healer, he openly shares his knowledge in an effort to keep the old wisdom and practices from being forgotten. Recounting sacred Oneida myths and cosmology, he describes the healing powers of the Fire Ceremony, energy exchange, and humor; discusses natural remedies; and explains how he healed himself from post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the Vietnam War.

Download or read book A Frog Under the Tongue written by Marek Tuszewicki and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-05 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2021 Gierowski-Shmeruk Prize Shortlisted for the Folklore Society's Katharine Briggs Award 2021 Jews have been active participants in shaping the healing practices of the communities of eastern Europe. Their approach largely combined the ideas of traditional Ashkenazi culture with the heritage of medieval and early modern medicine. Holy rabbis and faith healers, as well as Jewish barbers, innkeepers, and pedlars, all dispensed cures, purveyed folk remedies for different ailments, and gave hope to the sick and their families based on kabbalah, numerology, prayer, and magical Hebrew formulas. Nevertheless, as new sources of knowledge penetrated the traditional world, modern medical ideas gained widespread support. Jews became court physicians to the nobility, and when the universities were opened up to them many also qualified as doctors. At every stage, medicine proved an important field for cross-cultural contacts. Jewish historians and scholars of folk medicine alike will discover here fascinating sources never previously explored—manuscripts, printed publications, and memoirs in Yiddish and Hebrew but also in Polish, English, German, Russian, and Ukrainian. Marek Tuszewicki's careful study of these documents has teased out therapeutic advice, recipes, magical incantations, kabbalistic methods, and practical techniques, together with the ethical considerations that such approaches entailed. His research fills a gap in the study of folk medicine in eastern Europe, shedding light on little-known aspects of Ashkenazi culture, and on how the need to treat sickness brought Jews and their neighbours together.

Download or read book Anything Can Be Healed written by Martin Brofman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2019-06-11 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new edition of the classic practical manual for utilizing the chakra system as a body/mind interface for effective energetic healing • Explores the physical body as a mirror of our consciousness, with symptoms reflecting inner stresses in our emotional being, our mind, and/or our higher self • Offers an in-depth explanation of different aspects of each chakra, alongside a chakra meditation and practical energy exercises • Includes color reference charts of the chakras and their associated vibrations, systems, layers of the aura, senses, and areas of consciousness Drawing on his own profound healing experience as a young man, Martin Brofman developed a system of healing that effectively and seamlessly blends Western psychology and Eastern philosophies: the Body Mirror System. He explains how the chakra system connects to both mind and body to form a body/mind interface, allowing us to read the physical body as a mirror of the consciousness within, track the route from symptom to cause, and then work on releasing the causes on all levels. Brofman shows how specific tensions or symptoms on the physical level reflect corresponding tensions in one’s consciousness about specific issues in life--the inner cause to the outer symptom. The author explains how healing the symptom needs to involve not only releasing the tension on the physical level, but also letting go of the stressful way of interacting with the environment. Thus, the process of healing always implies a process of transformation. Within the concepts of his Body Mirror System, Brofman explores the chakras and their role in the body, including their associated vibrations, parts of the body, senses, layers of the aura, and areas of consciousness. He explains how to clear and connect the chakras, how to connect to the cosmos through the chakras, and how engaging with thought forms, time travel, and past lives can assist in healing sessions. Discussing the healing of others as well as self-healing, Brofman describes how to heal with chakras, thought forms, white light, and love, and how to perform distance healing. He provides practical energy exercises and chakra meditations, allowing the reader to imminently experience the healing energy in their bodies and prepare for a healing session. He also includes color reference guides, such as a chakra healing chart. Deeply examining the multilayered elements of the healing process, including transformation, this classic healing guide serves as a practical introduction to energy healing as well as a healer’s tutorial and reference book.