Eve's herbs : a history of contraception and abortion in the West
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Eve's herbs : a history of contraception and abortion in the West
Harvard University Press, c1997
- : cloth
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
-
: cloth ISBN 9780674270244
Description
The question addressed in this book is: if women once had access to effective means of birth control, why was this knowledge lost to them in modern times? The author asks what women knew about regulating fertility with herbs, and shows how the new intellectual, religious and legal climate of the early modern period tended to cast suspicion on women who employed the "secret knowledge" to terminate or prevent pregnancy. Knowledge of the menstral-regulating qualities of rue, pennyroyal and other herbs was widespread through the centuries among herbalists, apothecaries, doctors, and laywomen themselves, even as theologians and legal scholars began advancing the idea that the foetus was fully human from the moment of conception.
Table of Contents
- Introduction - Roe versus Wade
- a woman's secret
- the herbs known to the ancients
- ancient and medieval beliefs
- from womancraft to witchcraft, 1200-1500
- witches and apothecaries in the 16th and 17th centuries
- the broken chain of knowledge
- the womb as public territory
- Eve's herbs in modern America.
- Volume
-
: pbk ISBN 9780674270268
Description
In Contraception and Abortion from the Ancient World to the Renaissance, John M. Riddle showed, through extraordinary scholarly sleuthing, that women from ancient Egyptian times to the fifteenth century had relied on an extensive pharmacopoeia of herbal abortifacients and contraceptives to regulate fertility. In Eve's Herbs, Riddle explores a new question: If women once had access to effective means of birth control, why was this knowledge lost to them in modern times?
Beginning with the testimony of a young woman brought before the Inquisition in France in 1320, Riddle asks what women knew about regulating fertility with herbs and shows how the new intellectual, religious, and legal climate of the early modern period tended to cast suspicion on women who employed "secret knowledge" to terminate or prevent pregnancy. Knowledge of the menstrual-regulating qualities of rue, pennyroyal, and other herbs was widespread through succeeding centuries among herbalists, apothecaries, doctors, and laywomen themselves, even as theologians and legal scholars began advancing the idea that the fetus was fully human from the moment of conception.
Drawing on previously unavailable material, Riddle reaches a startling conclusion: while it did not persist in a form that was available to most women, ancient knowledge about herbs was not lost in modern times but survived in coded form. Persecuted as "witchcraft" in centuries past and prosecuted as a crime in our own time, the control of fertility by "Eve's herbs" has been practiced by Western women since ancient times.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction: Roe v. Wade 1. A Woman's Secret 2. The Herbs Known to Ancients 3. Ancient and Medieval Beliefs 4. From Womancraft to Witchcraft, 1200-1500 5. Witches and Apothecaries in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries 6. The Broken Chain of Knowledge 7. The Womb as Public Territory 8. Eve's Herbs in Modern America Epilogue Notes Index
by "Nielsen BookData"