To browse Academia. Breastfeeding is a key issue found in ancient sources that resonates with public debates today, affecting women in different parts of the world and of all social classes. The aim of this research was to identify breastfeeding narratives in ancient medical and philosophical texts from the 1st to the 6th century CE that address ethical issues in the medical management and social perception of new mothers.
We examined 15 literary sources and one funerary inscription on lactation and critically evaluated the ancient idea of the perfect breastfeeding mother versus the non-breastfeeding mother. We then discussed our historical data in terms of objectivity and significance in relation to contemporary attitudes towards motherhood and lactation, e. This volume offers the first comparative, interdisciplinary, and intercultural examination of the lactating woman β biological mother and othermother β in antiquity and early Byzantium.
Breastfeeding and the work of mothering are explored through the study of a great variety of sources, mainly works of Greek-speaking cultures, written and visual, anonymous and eponymous, which were mostly produced between the first and the seventh century AD. Due to their multiple interdisciplinary dimensions, ancient and early Byzantine lactating women are approached through three interconnected thematic strands having a twofold focus: society and ideology, medicine and practice, and art and literature.
By developing the model of the lactating woman, the volume offers a new analytical framework for understanding a significant part of the still unwritten cultural history of the period. At the same time, the volume significantly contributes to the emerging fields of breast and motherhood studies.
The new and significant knowledge generated in the fields of ancient and Byzantine studies may also prove useful for cultural historians in general and other disciplines, such as literary studies, art history, history of medicine, philosophy, theology, sociology, anthropology and gender studies. Greek gynecological and pediatric standards created ideal types. One was the woman fit to breastfeed, another the newborn fit to be breastfed. This study examines the consequences of these standards on human lives.
