Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece (Ancient Society and History)

Demand (history, Indiana U.) examines the causes for the phenomenon of relocation during the archaic and classical periods, in which dozens of Greek cities moved from one site to another. She also investigates how the Greeks made the relocated cities work: how they managed distant landholdings, how the Greeks made the relocated cities work: how they managed distant landholdings, how mixed populations were integrated into one civic body, and how a polis was affected by incorporation into a megalopolis.

Why did Greek society foster social conditions, especially early marriage with its attendant early childbearing, that were known to be dangerous for both mother and child? What were the actual causes of death among women described as dying of childbirth in the Hippocratic Epidemics? Why did families choose to portray labor scenes on tombstones when the Greek commemorative tradition otherwise avoided reference to suffering and illness? In Birth, Death, and Motherhood in Classical Greece, Nancy Demand offers the first comprehensive exploration of the social and cultural construction of childbirth in ancient Greece.

Reading the ancient evidence in light of feminist theory, the Foucauldian notion of discursively constituted objects, medical anthropology, and anthropological studies of the modern Greek village, Demand discusses topics that include midwifery, abortion, attitudes of doctors toward women patients, and the treatment of women generally. For evidence, she relies primarily on the case histories in the Epidemics concerning women with complications in pregnancy, abortion, and childbirth. She also draws relevant details from cure records and dedications from healing sanctuaries, labor scenes depicted on tombstones, Aristophanic comedy, andPlatonic philosophy.

This book is an important contribution to the scholarship on the lives of ancient Greek women, ancient medicine, and the social construction of gender among the Athenians. Nancy Demand has constructed a richer, more nuanced, and very likely far more accurate picture of childbirth and its attendant dangers than we have had to date. Her collection of translations of the Hippocratic texts on childbirth and relatedissues will be of great value for future investigators. — Valerie French, American University.

Booknews

Bringing feminist theory and medical anthropology to bear on ancient evidence, Demand (history, Indiana U.) uses case histories in the Hippocratic Epidemics to explore the social and cultural construction of childbirth in ancient Greece. Other sources include cure records and dedications from healing sanctuaries. Includes 12 b&w plates of ancient sculptures depicting childbirth scenes. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Nancy Demand. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 239-267) And Indexes.