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La mala obstetrix y la buena matrona. Estereotipos femeninos en la medicina medieval.

2018; Autonomous University of Madrid; Issue: 13 Linguagem: Inglês

10.15366/rha2018.13.001

2254-8726

Paloma Moral de Calatrava,

Medicine and Dermatology Studies History

In the Middle Ages, there were different labels to identify those women who took care of other women’s health. ‘Matron’ and ‘obstetrix’ were used in Latin, meanwhile vernacular languages could use a lot of terms. This paper analyzes how long the ideology about female moral was present in the creation of a semantic continuum which overshadowed women’s medical competencies. The therapeutic, but dirty and dishonest task to cause to the patient an orgasm was systematically assigned to the ‘obstetrices’ along the ancient and medieval manuscripts, whereas the diagnosis and surgical procedure related with the ‘clausio matricis’ was more problematic. Because this narrow condition could imply a divorce, Church commanded to a group of women to examine the female pudenda. The diachronic study of diverse terms which those women were named show that the Christian moral was the criteria men used to classify those women.