Inferiority Embodied: The ‘Men-struating’ Jew and Pre-Modern Notions of Identity and Difference

Abstract

translation of the ‘ men-struating ’ into theoretical medical writing to authoritative writings the past thus forth a corpus of texts that are also deeply rooted in theologisation. Theological tropes and doctrine powerfully influenced the pre-modern understanding of the human body and of somatic diversity. Most of the medical treatises that mention the ‘ men-struating ’ Jew consider his bleeding a natural phenomenon with natural causes. These were based on the theory of the four humours as it was developed by Hippocrates and Galen. Being hot or cold, moist or dry were the essen-tial qualities of every body. Health depended on keeping these four humours in balance. A hot and dry body was the most desirable as it allowed food to be easily turned into bodily fluids. The qualities of heat, cold, moisture, and dryness were connected to the four humours of yellow bile, blood, phlegm, and black bile, which contributed to the formation of fluids like mucus, urine, menstrual blood, or semen. Each of these discharges was also connected to proper diges-tion, with semen being the most refined of bodily fluids, resulting from men ’ s better concoction of food. Menstrual blood was also processed from food but re-mained less pure due to women ’ s general cold and moist condition. Its flow out of the body served as means of purging the body of excess cold and moisture. haemorrhoids) foods.