Health and wellness in colonial America / Rebecca Tannenbaum.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tannenbaum, Rebecca J. (Rebecca Jo)

Series:

Health and wellness in daily life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Diseases and history--United States.

Diseases and history.

Public health--United States--History.

Public health.

Medicine--United States--History.

Medicine.

History.

United States.

Indians of North America--History.

Indians of North America.

Indians of North America--Health and hygiene.

Physical Description:

xii, 249 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Santa Barbara, Calif. : Greenwood, [2012]

Summary:

How much has the state of health and wellness advanced in the United States over the last few hundred years? Consider the fact that George Washington's dentures were made of hippopotamus tusks (not wood); the typically harmful "medical" technique of bloodletting continued through the 19th century; and that Anglo-American infants were commonly prevented from crawling by their parents, for fear that they would never learn to walk.

Health and Wellness in Colonial America covers all aspects of medicine from surgery to the role of religion in healing, giving readers a comprehensive overall picture of medical practices from 1600 to 1800-a topic that speaks volumes about the living conditions during that period. This bok describes the ways in which all three cultures in colonial America-European, African, and Native American-thought about medicine. The work covers academic and scientific medicine as well as folk practices, women's role in healing, and the traditions of Native Americans and African Americans.

Because of its broad scope, the book will be highly useful to advanced high school students; undergraduate students in various areas of studies, such as early American history, women's history, and history of medicine; and general readers interested in the history of medicine. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Factors in Health and Wellness 1

The Disease Environment 2

Living Conditions and Life Expectancies 10

Health and Disease in a Transformed America 14

2 Education and Training: Learned and Nonlearned 17

The Training of Native American and African American Practitioners 17

Anglo-American Traditions 20

Changes in the Eighteenth Century 25

The First American Medical Schools 27

3 Faith, Religion, and Medicine 33

Christianity and Healing 33

Native American Practices 40

African American Religion and Healing 42

Witchcraft and Demonic Possession 45

4 Women's Health 53

Beliefs About Women's Bodies: Menstruation, Sexuality, and Conception 54

Pregnancy 56

Childbirth 58

Breastfeeding and Breast Health 62

Fertility and Infertility 65

5 Infants' and Children's Health 69

Infant and Child Care in Native American Cultures 69

Infant and Child Care in Anglo-American Cultures 71

Infant and Child Care in African American Cultures 74

Accidents and Injuries 76

Infectious Disease 77

6 Infectious Disease 85

First Contact Epidemics 86

Infectious Disease and Colonial Settlement 89

Fighting Epidemic Disease in the Colonial City 93

7 "Dangerous Trades" and Occupational Health 105

The Maritime Trades 105

Female Sex Workers 110

Enslaved Workers 112

8 Surgery, Dentistry, and Orthopedics 119

Science, Surgery, and Anatomy in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Europe 119

Who were the Surgeons in America? 122

Treating Trauma 124

Cutting for the Stone 127

Breast Cancer and Mastectomy 129

Dentists and Dental Care 130

9 The Brain and Mental Disorders 135

Understandings of the Brain in European American Culture 136

Neurological Disease 137

Intellectual Disability 141

Mental Illness 142

Eighteenth Century Changes 147

10 The Apothecary and his Pharmacopeia 153

Native American Traditions 153

Native American Medicines and Europeans 155

African American Traditions 157

African American Exchanges of Knowledge 158

Anglo-American Apothecaries and Medicines 159

11 War and Health 169

Colonial Era Warfare and Weapons 170

Treating Battlefield Injuries 172

Infectious Disease during Wartime 176

Germ Warfare? 183

Military Hygiene, Physicians, and Hospitals 184

12 Institutional Facilities 193

Almshouses 193

The First American Hospitals 199

13 Disease, Healing, and the Arts 211

Almanacs and Popular Print 211

Home Health Guides 214

Cotton Mather's Angel of Bethesda 215

The Poetry of Anne Bradstreet 216

Health and Medicine in Colonial Era Diaries 218

The Arts in Native American and African American Medicine 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-232) and index.

ISBN:

0313384908

9780313384905

9780313384912

0313384916

OCLC:

756577006

Publisher Number:

99950167241