Visiting Speaker – Mariska Leunissen (UNC-Chapel Hill)

Abstract: In this talk, I present parts of my current book project on 'facts, evidence, and early medicine in Aristotle's gynecology,' while focusing on what—Aristotle believes, often based on early medical sources, written by other men—women knew about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. These women's beliefs range from what we would call 'old wives' tales' and superstitions to technical medical concepts, and possibly included intentional falsehoods shared by women with men for their own protection. In addition, I will discuss a brief passage in which Aristotle discusses the art of the midwife and will contrast it with more negative and ambivalent portrayals of midwifery in Plato and in the Hippocratics. I will argue that texts like the ones I discuss in my talk indicate that Aristotle—but also some of the natural philosophers and early medical thinkers who were interested in gynecology—were theorizing about an already technically advanced and orally connected domain of female healers and practitioners who were—by the standards of their time—perfectly capable of taking care of their own.