Living with disability and disease — a thousand years ago
PA91/06 — June 05 2006
Life for the disabled and diseased in medieval times could help to shed light on the evolution of modern attitudes to disability and illness, according to a University of Nottingham expert.
Evidence from this little-studied field is already suggesting that attitudes were far more complex than previously thought — and that some people with disabilities were more 'visible' and more integrated into society then than they are today.
Dr Christina Lee, of the School of English Studies, is co-organiser of a conference exploring how people lived with illness and disability. The conference will look at issues such as what constituted a disability, burial patterns of people with an impairment compared to those without, the detection of medieval diseases and ideas of healing. Papers will cover a range of topics, such as the frequency of hip dysplasia, paralysis, the impact of nutrition and infectious disease.
Dr Lee believes that many of our ideas about attitudes to people with impairments in the Middle Ages are based on misconceptions about medieval life, rather than historical evidence.
The conference, 'Disease and Disability in Northern Europe 400–1200', will explore sickness and the status of the afflicted from a range of different angles, such as archaeology, palaeopathology — the study of ancient diseases — as well as linguistic and historical evidence.
The two-day event brings together 15 of the leading experts in the field from Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the UK.
Dr Lee said: “Many people have a perception of the Middle Ages as a 'dark time' between the Romans and the Renaissance.
“For example, there is this idea that in the medieval period, disabled and disfigured babies were smothered at birth, but that is not the case — the evidence suggests the birth of a child, any child, was something that was celebrated even when the disability was severe.
“Likewise there was a great interest in science and medicine. For example we have good evidence of even complicated bone fractures that have been set very accurately, and care being given for cancer of the bone.
“It can only help us to look at past societies to see how they looked at issues like disease and disability. There has been very little study of this issue before and it may be that we have to re-think some of the ideas that have become common currency about the medieval period.”
In this field of study, humanities scholars are working closely with scientists to examine bones and ancient DNA from the period and interpret the findings.
Skeletal evidence suggests that the disabled may have been active and 'visible' in society, said Dr Lee. Remains have been studied of individuals who lived into their 50s despite being unable to walk — which indicates that they were still able to do some form of work and support themselves into relatively old age.
Other evidence, she said, includes the discovery of 'weapon burials' given to men who had clear disabilities and could never have fought as warriors. The conclusion, said Dr Lee, is that such men were respected and regarded as leaders despite their impairment.
From the text evidence and burial spaces there seems to be a range of attitudes towards diseased people after the conversion to Christianity. There was the need to care, and where possible, to cure the afflicted, but this also made people with a disability into something different from the 'norm'.
A common belief was that lepers were both 'cursed and blessed' at the same time, since their disease constitutes a living purgatory, which allowed them to progress to salvation much faster than the non-diseased. In the literature of the Anglo-Saxons, lepers may be portrayed as repulsive, but they are also depicted as being able to intercede on behalf of the non-afflicted.
The burial of diseased people presents us with contradictory evidence as well. Whereas there are some outstanding leper burials from the pre-Christian period, there are later cases where they appear to have been deliberately laid to rest at the 'eaves-drip' in a churchyard – at the point where rainwater would drip off the church roof and onto their graves. This may represent their need for 'additional baptism', with water that had holy status because it had fallen onto the church.
Other burial evidence suggests some segregation of polio sufferers, who were laid to rest at the margins of the cemetery in an indication of their limited status.
Dr Lee said: “Medieval views of the diseased could be negative as well as positive. But we can only understand where certain modern ideas and misconceptions come from if we look at their historical basis.”
Among the papers being presented are:
· 'Anglo-Saxon Vampires? Disposing of the dangerous dead in early medieval England' by John Blair, Queen's College, Oxford
· 'Creating monsters: malnutrition and social control in earlier Anglo-Saxon England' by Sally Crawford, University of Birmingham
· Parties and paralysis: disability in Aelfric's Homilies, Dr Christina Lee, University of Nottingham
· Life and death with a physical disability in late Anglo-Saxon England, Jo Buckberry, University of Bradford.
This year's event takes place in the Medical School at the University of Birmingham, July 8-9, 2006. Academics who wish to attend the event need to register with the Centre for the History of Medicine, at the University, by June 15 at the latest.
Next year's event, scheduled for July 2007, will take place at The University of Nottingham.
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Notes to editors: The University of Nottingham undertakes world-changing research and provides teaching of the highest quality. Ranked in the THES World Top 100 Universities, its academics have won two Nobel Prizes since 2003. An international institution, the University has campuses in the United Kingdom, Malaysia and China.
More information is available from Dr Christina Lee, School of English Studies, University of Nottingham, on +44 (0)115 846 7194, mobile 07843 486386, christina.lee@nottingham.ac.uk; or Media Relations Manager Tim Utton in the University's Public Affairs Office on +44 (0)115 846 8092, tim.utton@nottingham.ac.uk |
