Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T02:17:03.284Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 3 - Scientific Belief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Sarah Tarlow
Affiliation:
University of Leicester
Get access

Summary

Alongside theological discourses on the body as a paradigm of the divine order or, paradoxically, the soulless body as worthless carrion, a revolution in scientific thinking was changing the ways people thought about the human body and the ways available to them for knowing about it. The old science of the human body based on authoritative writings of ancient or medieval authorities was giving way to a new anatomy, based on empirical observation, practical knowledge of the body's interior and scientific experiment. At the core of the new science of the human body was the study of anatomy. This chapter explores the history and cultural significance of cutting the dead body, reviews the archaeological evidence for anatomy, embalming and autopsy and considers why dissecting the dead was such a meaningful act in post-medieval Britain.

The history of anatomy in Europe can be told as part of the history of medicine. Such a narrative would contrast the pre-modern understandings of the human body – humoral, microcosmic and based on knowledge passed in a direct line of transmission from the classical philosophers – with the modern: rational and systemic, gained through personal study and scientific enquiry. The separation of modern scientific anatomy from received knowledge of the ancients happened as natural philosophy and its study pulled away from moral philosophy and theology during the later seventeenth century and took full cultural effect in the eighteenth century. Anatomy was a fashionable study, and some acquaintance with human anatomy permeated deeply into society. By the 1650s, an average of eighteen medical texts, most of which were largely based on anatomy, were published in England every year (Webster 1975: 266–7). But the history of medicine tells only part of the story; the fascination of anatomy was at least partly outside rationalist or utilitarian frames of reference.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Scientific Belief
  • Sarah Tarlow, University of Leicester
  • Book: Ritual, Belief and the Dead in Early Modern Britain and Ireland
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778629.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Scientific Belief
  • Sarah Tarlow, University of Leicester
  • Book: Ritual, Belief and the Dead in Early Modern Britain and Ireland
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778629.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Scientific Belief
  • Sarah Tarlow, University of Leicester
  • Book: Ritual, Belief and the Dead in Early Modern Britain and Ireland
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511778629.004
Available formats
×