The slow moon climbs : the science, history, and meaning of menopause / Susan P. Mattern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mattern, Susan P., 1966- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Menopause--History.

Menopause.

Menopause--Social aspects--History.

Menopause--Social aspects.

Menopause--Cross-cultural studies.

History.

Genre:

Cross-cultural studies.

Physical Description:

xi, 466 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press , [2019]

Summary:

"Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Historian Susan Mattern says yes, and The Slow Moon Climbs reveals just how wrong we have been. Taking readers from the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to reveal how our perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. For most of human history, people had no word for menopause and did not view it as a medical condition. Rather, in traditional foraging and agrarian societies, it was a transition to another important life stage. This book, then, introduces new ways of understanding life beyond fertility. Mattern examines the fascinating "Grandmother Hypothesis"--which argues for the importance of elders in the rearing of future generations - as well as other evolutionary theories that have generated surprising insights about menopause and the place of older people in society. She looks at agricultural communities where households relied on postreproductive women for the family's survival. And she explores the emergence of menopause as a medical condition in the Western world. It was only around 1700 that people began to see menopause as a dangerous pathological disorder linked to upsetting symptoms that rendered women weak and vulnerable. Mattern argues that menopause was another syndrome, like hysterical suffocation or melancholia, that emerged or reemerged in early modern Europe in tandem with the rise of a professional medical class. The Slow Moon Climbs casts menopause, at last, in the positive light it deserves - not only as an essential life stage, but also as a key factor in the history of human flourishing."--Publisher's website.

Contents:

Prologue: The grandmother of us all

Part I: Evolution

Why Menopause?

"Thank you, grandma, for human nature":the grandmother hypothesis

Putting the "men" in menopause: male-centered theories of human evolution

Foragers today: hunting, sharing, and super-uncles

Part II: History

Our long stone age past: how grandmothers (maybe) conquered the world

The age of farmers: patriarchy, property, and fertility control

Reproduction and non-reproduction in some agrarian societies

The modern world

Part III: Culture

Women's Hell: menopause and modern medicine

What are you talking about? menopause in traditional societies

Symptoms

A cultural syndrome?

Epilogue: good-bye to all that.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 371-441) and index.

ISBN:

9780691171630

0691171637

OCLC:

1121278372