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IMC 2003: Sessions

Session 1623: The Experience of Leprosy in the Middle Ages, II

Thursday 17 July 2003, 11.15-12.45

Sponsor:Medica
Organiser:Isla Fay, School of History, University of East Anglia
Moderator/Chair:Patricia Cullum, Department of History, University of Huddersfield
Paper 1623-aRex inutilis - abbas inutilis?: Notes on Physical Illness and Rulership in the Middle Ages
(Language: English)
Antje M. Schelberg, Independent Scholar, Göttingen
Index terms: Anthropology, Political Thought, Politics and Diplomacy
Paper 1623-bInfant and Child Leprosy: Present and Past
(Language: English)
Mary Elizabeth Lewis, Department of Archaeology, University of Reading
Index terms: Anthropology
Abstract

Shifting the Chronological focus of Session 1 forwards, the first paper considers aspects of leprosy stigma using historical and osteoarchaeological evidence from St James, Chichester. It challenges the idea that segregation was a 'natural' response to the physical presentation of th disease. The second paper explores documentary, pictorial and osseous evidence of leprosy in juveniles, in combination with clinical knowledge of the disease, in order to explain how leprosy may have affected this silent population. Issues of osteoarchaeological 'invisibility' are also explored. The content of the third paper will be confirmed.