The Healer's Calling
Author | : Rebecca Jo Tannenbaum |
Publisher | : Cornell University Press |
Total Pages | : 212 |
Release | : 2002 |
Genre | : Medicine |
ISBN | : 9780801438264 |
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"Rebecca J. Tannenbaum points out that housewives provided much of the medical care available in the seventeenth century. Elite women cared for the indigent in their towns and used medical practice to make influential connections with powerful men; "doctresses" or "doctor women," supported themselves with their practices and competed directly with male physicians; and midwives were crucial "expert witnesses" in cases of fornication, murder, and witchcraft. Yet there were limits to the authority of women's healing communities, with consequences for those who overstepped the bounds."--Cover.