Routledge Infirmity in Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Social and Cultural Approaches to Health, Weakness and Care

This volume discusses infirmitas (’infirmity’ or ’weakness’) in ancient and medieval societies. It concentrates on the cultural, social and domestic aspects of physical and mental illness, impairment and health, and also examines frailty as a more abstract, cultural construct. It seeks to widen our understanding of how physical and mental well-being and weakness were understood and constructed in the longue durée from antiquity to the Middle Ages. The chapters are written by experts from a variety of disciplines, including archaeology, art history and philology, and pay particular attention to the differences of experience due to gender, age and social status. The book opens with chapters on the more theoretical aspects of pre-modern infirmity and disability, moving on to discuss different types of mental and cultural infirmities, including those with positive connotations, such as medieval stigmata. The last section of the book discusses infirmity in everyday life from the perspective of healing, medicine and care. Review 'This timely volume brings together papers that were originally presented at a conference on infirmitas held at the University of Tampere, and specially-commissioned essays. The contributors range from established leaders in their fields to new and emerging scholars, throughout maintaining a high standard of investigation into socio-cultural approaches to caring, health and cure. The comparative spirit in which the Passages series of conferences has been held is reflected in the thematic continuities and breaks between antique and medieval, or the syncretism and hiatus of classical, Islamic and medieval Christian medical concepts. Old age, physical disability, and the normative perception of infirmity are just some of the topics scrutinized diachronically and cross-culturally. This approach highlights common threads running through texts and material cultures, while delving into detailed studies of individual case stories and microhistories of physical and mental disease. This collection is highly recommended for anyone interested in the medical humanities and in the pathologising of phenomena.' Irina Metzler, Wellcome Trust Research Fellow, University of Swansea, UK ‘All in all, this is a really interesting interdisciplinary volume. It will provide historians and archaeologists with interests in health and disability with much to think about for some time to come. Hopefully it will open up new avenues of comparative research across traditional chronological boundaries’ - Iona McCleery in Medical History (61:3). About the Author Christian Krotzl, Professor of History at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Tampere, Finland. Katariina Mustakallio, Dean of the School of Language, Translation and Literary Studies, University of Tampere, Finland. Jenni Kuuliala, Researcher in Medieval History at the University of Bremen, Germany.