Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World: A Gendered Perspective

Edited by Margaret E. Boyle and Sarah E. Owens

Recognizing the variety of health experiences across geographical borders, Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World interrogates the concepts of “health” and “healing” between 1500 and 1800. Through an interdisciplinary approach to medical history, gender history, and the literature and culture of the early modern Atlantic World, this collection of essays points to the ways in which the practice of medicine, the delivery of healthcare, and the experiences of disease and health are gendered.

The contributors explore how the medical profession sought to exert its power over patients, determining standards that impacted conceptions of self and body, and at the same time, how this influence was mediated. Using a range of sources, the essays reveal the multiple and sometimes contradictory ways that early modern health discourse intersected with gender and sexuality, as well as its ties to interconnected ethical, racial, and class-driven concerns. Health and Healing in the Early Modern Iberian World breaks new ground through its systematic focus on gender and sexuality as they relate to the delivery of healthcare, the practice of medicine, and the experiences of health and healing across early modern Spain and colonial Latin America.

Reviews

“This groundbreaking volume shines new light on the intertwining of gender, sexuality, religion, and colonialism in early modern Iberia and its colonies. Bringing together an interdisciplinary array of topics by historians of medicine, literature, and theatre, it presents theoretically sophisticated analyses and dynamic original research on health delivery, patient experience, and broader cultural perceptions of healing. It represents an important and exciting new contribution to the histories of gender, colonialism, and medicine in the early modern Atlantic world.”
– Alisha Rankin, Department of History, Tufts University

“Grounded in a wide range of previously unexplored and rich source material, this collection contains significant analyses of how gender shaped both experiences and representations of health and healing in the early modern Iberian world.”
– Elizabeth A. Lehfeldt, Department of History, Cleveland State University

“This collection provides a much-needed reframing of our approach to the histories of health and healthcare by placing the women of the Hispanic monarchy – their ideas about the body and their healing practices – at the centre of its analysis. Against a backdrop of rapid globalization, the contributors shed light on the changing healing practices, institutional systems of control, and religious beliefs of Spain and its American territories. Better still, the volume has a fascinating archival nugget or a compelling insight on nearly every page.”
– John Slater, Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, Colorado State University