Friday, November 03, 10:30 am–12:30 pm
Galleria I
This live event will not be recorded.
Chair: Thomas A. DuBois (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
10:30 am
‘Making women satisfied with their husbands’: Gender and (an)aphrodisiacs in medieval Scandinavia
Ailie Westbrook (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
11:00 am
White Magic in the Finnmark Witch Trials
Amber R. Cederstrom (University of Wisconsin Press)
11:30 am
“To the good man – bread in the mouth”: Bread, Charms, and the Peasant Economy in 19th Century Russia
Isabella Palange (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
12:00 pm
Women as Patients and Healers in the Writings of Johan Turi
Thomas A. DuBois (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
The intersections of health, magic, and gender are examined in case studies drawn from pre-modern Nordic and Russian ethnographic, historical, and court records. Each paper presents a specific case of healing practices as reflected in medieval manuscripts, early modern witchcraft trials, and Sámi and Russian ethnographic writings. Presentations examine the ways in which health, magic, and gender intersect in specific cultural contexts and the ways in which institutional and folk healing interact in the lives and practices of Nordic and Russian women and men.