To know secrets was to be a witch;
it was necessary to know secrets to be a midwife;
therefore a midwife was a witch.
Cunning women, devins-guérisseurs, leveurs de sorts, benandanti, toverdokters, duivelbanners, Kräuterhexen, bean feasa, banfhaidh, curanderos, mulheres de virtude, kloge folk, gumma, old crone.
Histories of naming midwives, female healers and doctors without degrees gives an insight into how these women were viewed. In Scrutiny, Slander and Disdain, we bring together texts and references that relate to the myriad ways that midwives and female healers were controlled, criticized and criminalized.
Cuttencruyt
Dit heel cruydeken is van eene seer vuylen reuck, selfs den bedorven ende verrotten gesauten Visch, ende het stinckende Peekel oft Vischsop, met sijnen moeyelijcken…
L’erba delle donne
This book contains eleven studies on the history of women in the defense of health, demonstrating how, even if the ruling class has historically used…
Arrived by post today
“Activist Liv Strömquist riffs on outrageous obsessions with menstruation and genitalia”
Witches Midwives and Nurses
Women have always been healers. They were the unlicensed doctors and anatomists of western history. They were abortionists, nurses and counsellors. they were pharmacists, cultivating…