Sisyphus: interesting biblical evidence on ancient menstruation practices. I’ve been thinking about how the different women (English, African, Native, and French) in my book would have dealt with menstruation, since communities of women are really what I’m writing about. I hear what you’re saying, but OTOH, I’m thinking that women in the ancient world, like women in Native American communities who practiced menstrual exclusion, might have welcomed a week’s vacation every month! Cherokee and Wabanaki women would go to menstrual huts when their time came, and other people (women or girls, presumably) would bring them food. They weren’t expected to work or look after their children, as far as I know. We know perhaps even less about the practices of European and Euro-American women. (In most cases, the scholarship focuses on attitudes/beliefs rather than the material culture & practical aspects of menstruation.)

Here’s a brief bibliography of articles I found to be the most helpful:

Marla N. Powers, “Menstruation and Reproduction: An Oglala Case,” Signs 6:1 (1980), 54-65

Amelia Rector Bell, “Separate People: Speaking of Creek Men and Women,” American Anthropologist, New Series 92:2 (1990), 332-345

Patricia Crawford, “Attitudes to Menstruation in Seventeenth-Century England,” Past and Present 91:1 (1981), 47-73.

Susan E. Klepp, “Lost, Hidden, Obstructed, and Repressed: Contraceptive and Abortive Technology in the Early Delaware Valley,” in Early American Technology: Making & Doing Things from the Colonial Era to 1850 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 68-113.

Sadly, I’m processing yet another awful mass murder here in gun-loving Colorado. I’m sure the rest of you have heard about this too. Not sure if I’ll be on-blog today. I guess what I find utterly and completely appalling is the complete impossibility of any of our political leaders suggesting a political solution to these outrages. I guess our politicians see mass murder like wildfire or drought: natural phenomena that we must endure the best we can, rather than a political problem with potential political solutions.

http://www.cassknowledge.com/mobile/inbusiness/feature/coach-ceo

Maybe I’m the last of you lot to learn about her book on higher ed, but just in case…

However, as the article linked to by Ruth makes clear, the fact that the garment found in Lengberg fits into a well-known category of menswear doesn’t exclude the possibility that it could also have belonged into a different category, a category we simple haven’t been aware of so far. I mean, until two days ago, we had no idea there was such a thing as medieval bras, and as has been mentioned here, we only have very vague ideas regarding what women wore during menstruation.

On this note, I just checked if the encyclopedia on Women and Gender in Medieval Europe (ed. Margaret Schaus, New York : Routledge 2006) had anything to say on the subject, but the entry on ‘Menstruation’ mostly deals with medical and moral attitudes towards menstruations and has little information on the, shall we say, practical aspects. However, it contains this little gem (which is totally unrelated to the question of underwear but simply too hilarious not to share it):

“(T)he view that menstruation was a sign of Eve’s curse prompted debates as to whether the Virgin Mary herself (who was otherwise thought by many to be free of all taint of original sin) shared this female trait” (p. 558).

Ah, medieval theological debate, gotta love it

I’m also surprised how — I don’t know if it’s new or behind the times — fashion history is. Have you read _Emily Dickinson and the Labor of CLothing_? The amount of stuff we don’t know about earlier time periods’ clothing is kind of shocking.