Body, Place, and Knowledge: The Plica polonica in Travelogues and Experts’ Reflections around 1800

Abstract

ABSTRACT The matting of hair, understood as a medical condition since around 1600 and named Plica polonica, appears prominently in the writings of eighteenth-century authors travelling to Polish lands or in experts’ opinions about these provinces. This paper argues that integrating observations about an allegedly endemic medical condition was intimately linked to the emerging discourse on eastern Europe as an essentially different part of the continent, and an object of colonizing efforts. It demonstrates that travelogues and experts’ opinions were drawing inspiration, observations, and assumptions from each other, a hitherto only partially understood instance of cross-fertilizing writing on eastern Europe, offering important insights into the development of experts’ culture in the Age of Enlightenment.