The sexual and reproductive health of women in sixth-century Christianity
This thesis is about the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of women in the sixth-century Christianity. It employs World Health Organization categories of SRH because, far from being unhelpfully anachronistic, I argue, they can offer useful new angles from which we can inquire about the nuanced concept of ~health~ found in ancient sources. Furthermore, these categories well describe the spectrum of ancient sexuality as I mean to define it in the present study, that is, encompassing ~all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions~ and looking at a woman's ~state of complete physical, mental and social well-being~ in relation to sexuality and reproduction (WHO definition). Therefore this thesis seeks to explore what impact the social and moral changes brought about by the arrival of Christianity had on medical approaches to female sexuality and reproduction in the Byzantine world of the sixth century by engaging in a nuanced dialogue with medical and hagiographical texts. The research applies a comparative approach by looking at late antique attitudes to women's sexuality, women's sexual wellbeing and sexual pleasure, and women's reproductive power and autonomy in relation to classical antiquity
Groff, E.
Ancient Sexuality ; Gender ; Ancient Women's Health ; Byzantine women ; Hagiography ; Aetius of Amida ; Late Antiquity
The sexual and reproductive health of women in sixth-century Christianity. This thesis is about the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) of women in the sixth-century Christianity. It employs World Health Organization categories of SRH because, far from being unhelpfully anachronistic, I argue, they can offer useful new angles from which we can inquire about the nuanced concept of ~health~ found in ancient sources. Furthermore, these categories well describe the spectrum of ancient sexuality as I mean to define it in the present study, that is, encompassing ~all matters relating to the reproductive system and its functions~ and looking at a woman's ~state of complete physical, mental and social well-being~ in relation to sexuality and reproduction (WHO definition). Therefore this thesis seeks to explore what impact the social and moral changes brought about by the arrival of Christianity had on medical approaches to female sexuality and reproduction in the Byzantine world of the sixth century by engaging in a nuanced dialogue with medical and hagiographical texts. The research applies a comparative approach by looking at late antique attitudes to women's sexuality, women's sexual wellbeing and sexual pleasure, and women's reproductive power and autonomy in relation to classical antiquity
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