Health and society in early modern Sweden / edited by Mari Eyice and Charlotta Forss.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Eyice, Mari, editor.

Forss, Charlotta, editor.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Series:

Premodern health, disease and disability

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Health behavior--Sweden--History.

Social medicine--Sweden--History.

Physical Description:

240 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, [2024]

Summary:

The understanding of what health is and how it can be maintained has changed through history. Questions like "who can perform healing?" and "what sort of bodies are considered healthy?" have elicited widely divergent responses in different societies. This volume explores how health was understood and practiced in the early modern Nordic region, with a focus on Sweden, including Finland. The chapters examine topics such as the dyslexia of Charles XI, lay perceptions of bodily and mental variability, and the health benefits attributed to using the sauna. Together, the essays give a holistic view of how practices of health evolved in close symmetry with societal institutions and localised worldviews. As such, the volume is a timely intervention into the social history of medicine, contributing to the historicisation of health as a concept and shedding light on developments in the Nordic world.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

946372429X

9789463724296

OCLC:

1414163068

Publisher Number:

99995988398