Ranging from Aristotle to twentieth-century gynecology, contributions to this volume trace the semiotics of menstruation from magical act to evolutionary deficiency. The result is the first comprehensive historical study of how menstruation has been understood within various cultural traditions, with reference to political and social institutions, and medical and religious practices. Includes a guide for scholars on bibliographical and archival sources for the study of menstruation.

Notes on Contributors * Acknowledgments * List of Figures * Introduction: 'Talking Your Body's Language': The Menstrual Materialisation of Sexed Ontology; A.Shail & G.Howie * PART 1: SCIENCE AND MEDICINE * Menses in the Corpus Hippocraticum; L.Arata * Menstruation in Aristotle's Concept of the Person; G.Hiltmann * The Art and Science of Menstrual Balancing in Early Medieval China; S.Wilms * Flowers, Poisons and Men: Menstruation in Medieval Western Europe; M.H.Green * The Secrets of Women (c. 1300): A Medieval Perspective on Menstruation; B.Bildhauer * Menstrual Knowledge and Medical Practice in Early Modern France, c. 1555-1761; C.McClive * Menstruation and Sexual Difference in Early Modern Medicine; M.Stolberg * 'I believe it to be a case depending on menstruation': Madness and Menstrual Taboo in British Medical Practice, c. 1840-1930; J-M.Strange * Embryological and Agricultural Constructions of the Menstrual Cycle, 1890-1910; H.Blackman * Of Sex, Nationalities and Populations: The Construction of Menstruation as a Patho-Physiology; Z.Meghani * PART 2: MYTH AND CULTURE * Menstrual Misogyny and Taboo: The Medusa, Vampire and the Female Stigmatic; M.Mulvey-Roberts * The Swan Maiden's Flight Over Time: Rituals, Fairytales and Matriarchy; J.K.Thomas * Menstruating Women/Menstruating Goddesses: Sites of Sacred Power in South India; D.E.Jenett * Medieval Responsa Literature On Niddah: Perpetuations of Notions of Tumah; H.Ner-David * 'Let Him Pass for a Man': The Myth of Jewish Male Menstruation in The Merchant of Venice; A.M.Balizet * A Menstrual Lesson for Girls: Maria Edgeworth's "The Purple Jar"; H.Robbins * 'A rag and a bone and a hank of hair': The Menstrual Background of "the Vampire"; A.Shail * Masking Menstruation: The Emergence of Menstrual Hygiene Products in the United States; S.L.Vostral * Blood, Laughter and the Medusa: The Gothic Heroine as Menstrual Monster; R.Munford * PART 3: APPENDIX * A Guide to Bibliographical and Archival Resources for the Study of the History of Menstruation; A.Shail * Index