Family relations and legal medicine in nineteenth century Greece
Barlagiannis, Athanasios
Family relations and legal medicine in nineteenth century Greece - 2023.
31
This article examines the dynamic relations between legal medicine, the family, the state, and the church as they developed in Greece during the nineteenth century. By focusing on the discourses contained in four medico-legal manuals published between 1846 and 1889, and by analyzing their approaches to subjects like the establishment of paternity and pregnancy, or the appropriate age for getting married, the article argues that legal medicine influenced family affairs even as it developed as a distinct legal and medical sub-field. Thus, as it was simultaneously constituted and brought to bear in family affairs, legal medicine became intertwined with the power of the state, expressed through the civil justice system, and with the church and empirical medicine (that is, traditional medicine practiced by non-graduates)—which together had exerted control over the family during the Ottoman era. In this respect, family relations in Greece experienced significant changes during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek state. The boundaries between the private and the public were (re)negotiated under the influence of this emerging medical field tied to political dynamics that both intervened in and shaped the family.
Family relations and legal medicine in nineteenth century Greece - 2023.
31
This article examines the dynamic relations between legal medicine, the family, the state, and the church as they developed in Greece during the nineteenth century. By focusing on the discourses contained in four medico-legal manuals published between 1846 and 1889, and by analyzing their approaches to subjects like the establishment of paternity and pregnancy, or the appropriate age for getting married, the article argues that legal medicine influenced family affairs even as it developed as a distinct legal and medical sub-field. Thus, as it was simultaneously constituted and brought to bear in family affairs, legal medicine became intertwined with the power of the state, expressed through the civil justice system, and with the church and empirical medicine (that is, traditional medicine practiced by non-graduates)—which together had exerted control over the family during the Ottoman era. In this respect, family relations in Greece experienced significant changes during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek state. The boundaries between the private and the public were (re)negotiated under the influence of this emerging medical field tied to political dynamics that both intervened in and shaped the family.
Réseaux sociaux