{"id":78442,"date":"2011-04-07T10:00:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-07T14:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"\/gazette\/?p=78442"},"modified":"2019-05-21T14:10:32","modified_gmt":"2019-05-21T18:10:32","slug":"debunking-a-myth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2011\/04\/debunking-a-myth\/","title":{"rendered":"Debunking a myth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"\"

According to her research, Katharine Park said, "The female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d And with that, she is overturning a long-held myth that human dissection was prohibited by the church.<\/p>

Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tHealth\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tDebunking a myth\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tMaya Shwayder \u201911\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tIn medieval Christianity, dissection was often practiced\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what Katharine Park<\/a> originally set out to do. \u201cI was writing a social history of medicine in Florence, a topic I chose basically just because I got to go\u201d to that fabled Italian city, she joked.<\/p>\n

But while working in those ancient halls amid so much beauty, Park said, \u201cI kept finding stories about women\u2019s bodies being cut up. I remember I came across one entry in a diary, where the husband says his wife died, and he requested her to be autopsied. I was like, huh? Autopsy?\u201d<\/p>\n

Most scholars assume that autopsy and dissection were taboo in medieval Europe; if they were conducted, they were illicit and done only on the bodies of criminals by intrepid scientists and doctors, flying in the face of clerical authority in the name of pursuing knowledge.<\/p>\n

But Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, discovered quite another story in the Florentine libraries. \u201cThis was a very wealthy, patrician woman. The story didn\u2019t compute. And I kept finding little tiny bits and pieces about female bodies being opened over the years. By the late \u201990s, I had a critical mass of the stuff, and it all felt so counterintuitive. It was time to see what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs it turns out, the female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d According to Park, dissection grew out of autopsy, and autopsy grew out of embalming. The interest in specifically women stemmed from a desire to understand the origins of life. As such, it was all sanctioned by the church.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe functions of the uterus came to symbolize what they didn\u2019t know. The idea was that the female body was really mysterious. Male bodies are all out there; everything about male identity is all on the outside. The uterus and female body are the last medical secret, a sign that they thought medicine had come to a point where it can penetrate most obscure workings of reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was always the uterus that was dissected first, according to Park, \u201cexcept in the case of holy women,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen they would dissect the heart. The thought was, this woman has died, and she might be a saint. We can embalm her because the body is useful for establishing a cult. Then you have her insides, and she said she had Jesus Christ in her heart. Well, you might as well open it up and look for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is that human dissection is not a Renaissance invention,\u201d Park continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything having to do with medicine, health care, the human body \u2014 women are at the center. We\u2019re going to have to rewrite a whole lot of pieces of history of early medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Park\u2019s research came together in her book \u201cSecrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection,\u201d which was rereleased in paperback a year ago. \u201cI found that instead of this investment in the integrity of the human body, social history and religious sources tell us that the human body in medieval Christianity was something to be torn about,\u201d she said. \u201cThe religion was about dismembered bodies. Christian ritual is organized around body parts. It became clear to me from the religious end that the assumption we had about medieval bodies was not holding up. In the end, I wanted to make it clear there was no religious prohibition against dissection.\u201d<\/p>\n

If this is true, then where did the idea that is was prohibited come from?\u201d It was a 19th century myth,\u201d said Park, \u201clike that before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world was flat. People are absolutely wedded to a view that says \u2018We are modern, and they were stupid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n

Park even found evidence that people long ago were even aware of hereditary illnesses and used dissection to investigate. \u201cI found one case of a young boy\u2019s death, wherein the father asked the physician to autopsy his son so that he could have medical advice for his other children.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese people were very good observers. Even if they didn\u2019t have the scientific tools we have today, there was nothing wrong with their brains.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I read something in The New York Times<\/a> that Leonardo da Vinci had to hide the fact that he was doing dissection, and every time I listen to a tour guide in Italy tell these stories, it just kills me. I don\u2019t know how to get rid of this myth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what Katharine Park originally set out to do. 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her research, Katharine Park said, "The female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d And with that, she is overturning a long-held myth that human dissection was prohibited by the church.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/022511_park_katy_049_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">According to her research, Katharine Park said, "The female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d And with that, she is overturning a long-held myth that human dissection was prohibited by the church.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"\" height=\"403\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/04\/022511_park_katy_049_605.jpg\" width=\"605\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">According to her research, Katharine Park said, "The female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d And with that, she is overturning a long-held myth that human dissection was prohibited by the church.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Stephanie Mitchell\/Harvard Staff Photographer<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tHealth\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tDebunking a myth\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tMaya Shwayder \u201911\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Correspondent\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2011-04-07\">\n\t\t\tApril 7, 2011\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t5 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tIn medieval Christianity, dissection was often practiced\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/%7Ehsdept\/bios\/park.html\">Katharine Park<\/a> originally set out to do. \u201cI was writing a social history of medicine in Florence, a topic I chose basically just because I got to go\u201d to that fabled Italian city, she joked.<\/p>\n<p>But while working in those ancient halls amid so much beauty, Park said, \u201cI kept finding stories about women\u2019s bodies being cut up. I remember I came across one entry in a diary, where the husband says his wife died, and he requested her to be autopsied. I was like, huh? Autopsy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most scholars assume that autopsy and dissection were taboo in medieval Europe; if they were conducted, they were illicit and done only on the bodies of criminals by intrepid scientists and doctors, flying in the face of clerical authority in the name of pursuing knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>But Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, discovered quite another story in the Florentine libraries. \u201cThis was a very wealthy, patrician woman. The story didn\u2019t compute. And I kept finding little tiny bits and pieces about female bodies being opened over the years. By the late \u201990s, I had a critical mass of the stuff, and it all felt so counterintuitive. It was time to see what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it turns out, the female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d According to Park, dissection grew out of autopsy, and autopsy grew out of embalming. The interest in specifically women stemmed from a desire to understand the origins of life. As such, it was all sanctioned by the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe functions of the uterus came to symbolize what they didn\u2019t know. The idea was that the female body was really mysterious. Male bodies are all out there; everything about male identity is all on the outside. The uterus and female body are the last medical secret, a sign that they thought medicine had come to a point where it can penetrate most obscure workings of reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was always the uterus that was dissected first, according to Park, \u201cexcept in the case of holy women,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen they would dissect the heart. The thought was, this woman has died, and she might be a saint. We can embalm her because the body is useful for establishing a cult. Then you have her insides, and she said she had Jesus Christ in her heart. Well, you might as well open it up and look for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that human dissection is not a Renaissance invention,\u201d Park continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything having to do with medicine, health care, the human body \u2014 women are at the center. We\u2019re going to have to rewrite a whole lot of pieces of history of early medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park\u2019s research came together in her book \u201cSecrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection,\u201d which was rereleased in paperback a year ago. \u201cI found that instead of this investment in the integrity of the human body, social history and religious sources tell us that the human body in medieval Christianity was something to be torn about,\u201d she said. \u201cThe religion was about dismembered bodies. Christian ritual is organized around body parts. It became clear to me from the religious end that the assumption we had about medieval bodies was not holding up. In the end, I wanted to make it clear there was no religious prohibition against dissection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If this is true, then where did the idea that is was prohibited come from?\u201d It was a 19th century myth,\u201d said Park, \u201clike that before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world was flat. People are absolutely wedded to a view that says \u2018We are modern, and they were stupid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park even found evidence that people long ago were even aware of hereditary illnesses and used dissection to investigate. \u201cI found one case of a young boy\u2019s death, wherein the father asked the physician to autopsy his son so that he could have medical advice for his other children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people were very good observers. Even if they didn\u2019t have the scientific tools we have today, there was nothing wrong with their brains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I read something in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\">The New York Times<\/a> that Leonardo da Vinci had to hide the fact that he was doing dissection, and every time I listen to a tour guide in Italy tell these stories, it just kills me. I don\u2019t know how to get rid of this myth.\u201d<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/%7Ehsdept\/bios\/park.html\">Katharine Park<\/a> originally set out to do. \u201cI was writing a social history of medicine in Florence, a topic I chose basically just because I got to go\u201d to that fabled Italian city, she joked.<\/p>\n<p>But while working in those ancient halls amid so much beauty, Park said, \u201cI kept finding stories about women\u2019s bodies being cut up. I remember I came across one entry in a diary, where the husband says his wife died, and he requested her to be autopsied. I was like, huh? Autopsy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most scholars assume that autopsy and dissection were taboo in medieval Europe; if they were conducted, they were illicit and done only on the bodies of criminals by intrepid scientists and doctors, flying in the face of clerical authority in the name of pursuing knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>But Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, discovered quite another story in the Florentine libraries. \u201cThis was a very wealthy, patrician woman. The story didn\u2019t compute. And I kept finding little tiny bits and pieces about female bodies being opened over the years. By the late \u201990s, I had a critical mass of the stuff, and it all felt so counterintuitive. It was time to see what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it turns out, the female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d According to Park, dissection grew out of autopsy, and autopsy grew out of embalming. The interest in specifically women stemmed from a desire to understand the origins of life. As such, it was all sanctioned by the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe functions of the uterus came to symbolize what they didn\u2019t know. The idea was that the female body was really mysterious. Male bodies are all out there; everything about male identity is all on the outside. The uterus and female body are the last medical secret, a sign that they thought medicine had come to a point where it can penetrate most obscure workings of reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was always the uterus that was dissected first, according to Park, \u201cexcept in the case of holy women,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen they would dissect the heart. The thought was, this woman has died, and she might be a saint. We can embalm her because the body is useful for establishing a cult. Then you have her insides, and she said she had Jesus Christ in her heart. Well, you might as well open it up and look for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that human dissection is not a Renaissance invention,\u201d Park continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything having to do with medicine, health care, the human body \u2014 women are at the center. We\u2019re going to have to rewrite a whole lot of pieces of history of early medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park\u2019s research came together in her book \u201cSecrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection,\u201d which was rereleased in paperback a year ago. \u201cI found that instead of this investment in the integrity of the human body, social history and religious sources tell us that the human body in medieval Christianity was something to be torn about,\u201d she said. \u201cThe religion was about dismembered bodies. Christian ritual is organized around body parts. It became clear to me from the religious end that the assumption we had about medieval bodies was not holding up. In the end, I wanted to make it clear there was no religious prohibition against dissection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If this is true, then where did the idea that is was prohibited come from?\u201d It was a 19th century myth,\u201d said Park, \u201clike that before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world was flat. People are absolutely wedded to a view that says \u2018We are modern, and they were stupid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park even found evidence that people long ago were even aware of hereditary illnesses and used dissection to investigate. \u201cI found one case of a young boy\u2019s death, wherein the father asked the physician to autopsy his son so that he could have medical advice for his other children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people were very good observers. Even if they didn\u2019t have the scientific tools we have today, there was nothing wrong with their brains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I read something in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\">The New York Times<\/a> that Leonardo da Vinci had to hide the fact that he was doing dissection, and every time I listen to a tour guide in Italy tell these stories, it just kills me. I don\u2019t know how to get rid of this myth.\u201d<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/%7Ehsdept\/bios\/park.html\">Katharine Park<\/a> originally set out to do. \u201cI was writing a social history of medicine in Florence, a topic I chose basically just because I got to go\u201d to that fabled Italian city, she joked.<\/p>\n<p>But while working in those ancient halls amid so much beauty, Park said, \u201cI kept finding stories about women\u2019s bodies being cut up. I remember I came across one entry in a diary, where the husband says his wife died, and he requested her to be autopsied. I was like, huh? Autopsy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most scholars assume that autopsy and dissection were taboo in medieval Europe; if they were conducted, they were illicit and done only on the bodies of criminals by intrepid scientists and doctors, flying in the face of clerical authority in the name of pursuing knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>But Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, discovered quite another story in the Florentine libraries. \u201cThis was a very wealthy, patrician woman. The story didn\u2019t compute. And I kept finding little tiny bits and pieces about female bodies being opened over the years. By the late \u201990s, I had a critical mass of the stuff, and it all felt so counterintuitive. It was time to see what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it turns out, the female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d According to Park, dissection grew out of autopsy, and autopsy grew out of embalming. The interest in specifically women stemmed from a desire to understand the origins of life. As such, it was all sanctioned by the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe functions of the uterus came to symbolize what they didn\u2019t know. The idea was that the female body was really mysterious. Male bodies are all out there; everything about male identity is all on the outside. The uterus and female body are the last medical secret, a sign that they thought medicine had come to a point where it can penetrate most obscure workings of reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was always the uterus that was dissected first, according to Park, \u201cexcept in the case of holy women,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen they would dissect the heart. The thought was, this woman has died, and she might be a saint. We can embalm her because the body is useful for establishing a cult. Then you have her insides, and she said she had Jesus Christ in her heart. Well, you might as well open it up and look for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that human dissection is not a Renaissance invention,\u201d Park continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything having to do with medicine, health care, the human body \u2014 women are at the center. We\u2019re going to have to rewrite a whole lot of pieces of history of early medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park\u2019s research came together in her book \u201cSecrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection,\u201d which was rereleased in paperback a year ago. \u201cI found that instead of this investment in the integrity of the human body, social history and religious sources tell us that the human body in medieval Christianity was something to be torn about,\u201d she said. \u201cThe religion was about dismembered bodies. Christian ritual is organized around body parts. It became clear to me from the religious end that the assumption we had about medieval bodies was not holding up. In the end, I wanted to make it clear there was no religious prohibition against dissection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If this is true, then where did the idea that is was prohibited come from?\u201d It was a 19th century myth,\u201d said Park, \u201clike that before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world was flat. People are absolutely wedded to a view that says \u2018We are modern, and they were stupid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park even found evidence that people long ago were even aware of hereditary illnesses and used dissection to investigate. \u201cI found one case of a young boy\u2019s death, wherein the father asked the physician to autopsy his son so that he could have medical advice for his other children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people were very good observers. Even if they didn\u2019t have the scientific tools we have today, there was nothing wrong with their brains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I read something in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\">The New York Times<\/a> that Leonardo da Vinci had to hide the fact that he was doing dissection, and every time I listen to a tour guide in Italy tell these stories, it just kills me. I don\u2019t know how to get rid of this myth.\u201d<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Studying dead women\u2019s cut-up bodies was not what <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fas.harvard.edu\/%7Ehsdept\/bios\/park.html\">Katharine Park<\/a> originally set out to do. \u201cI was writing a social history of medicine in Florence, a topic I chose basically just because I got to go\u201d to that fabled Italian city, she joked.<\/p>\n<p>But while working in those ancient halls amid so much beauty, Park said, \u201cI kept finding stories about women\u2019s bodies being cut up. I remember I came across one entry in a diary, where the husband says his wife died, and he requested her to be autopsied. I was like, huh? Autopsy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Most scholars assume that autopsy and dissection were taboo in medieval Europe; if they were conducted, they were illicit and done only on the bodies of criminals by intrepid scientists and doctors, flying in the face of clerical authority in the name of pursuing knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>But Park, the Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray Stone Radcliffe Professor of the History of Science, discovered quite another story in the Florentine libraries. \u201cThis was a very wealthy, patrician woman. The story didn\u2019t compute. And I kept finding little tiny bits and pieces about female bodies being opened over the years. By the late \u201990s, I had a critical mass of the stuff, and it all felt so counterintuitive. It was time to see what it was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs it turns out, the female body really lay at the heart of the development of autopsy and dissection as medical practices.\u201d According to Park, dissection grew out of autopsy, and autopsy grew out of embalming. The interest in specifically women stemmed from a desire to understand the origins of life. As such, it was all sanctioned by the church.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe functions of the uterus came to symbolize what they didn\u2019t know. The idea was that the female body was really mysterious. Male bodies are all out there; everything about male identity is all on the outside. The uterus and female body are the last medical secret, a sign that they thought medicine had come to a point where it can penetrate most obscure workings of reproduction.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was always the uterus that was dissected first, according to Park, \u201cexcept in the case of holy women,\u201d she explained. \u201cThen they would dissect the heart. The thought was, this woman has died, and she might be a saint. We can embalm her because the body is useful for establishing a cult. Then you have her insides, and she said she had Jesus Christ in her heart. Well, you might as well open it up and look for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact is that human dissection is not a Renaissance invention,\u201d Park continued.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnything having to do with medicine, health care, the human body \u2014 women are at the center. We\u2019re going to have to rewrite a whole lot of pieces of history of early medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park\u2019s research came together in her book \u201cSecrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection,\u201d which was rereleased in paperback a year ago. \u201cI found that instead of this investment in the integrity of the human body, social history and religious sources tell us that the human body in medieval Christianity was something to be torn about,\u201d she said. \u201cThe religion was about dismembered bodies. Christian ritual is organized around body parts. It became clear to me from the religious end that the assumption we had about medieval bodies was not holding up. In the end, I wanted to make it clear there was no religious prohibition against dissection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If this is true, then where did the idea that is was prohibited come from?\u201d It was a 19th century myth,\u201d said Park, \u201clike that before Christopher Columbus everyone thought the world was flat. People are absolutely wedded to a view that says \u2018We are modern, and they were stupid.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n<p>Park even found evidence that people long ago were even aware of hereditary illnesses and used dissection to investigate. \u201cI found one case of a young boy\u2019s death, wherein the father asked the physician to autopsy his son so that he could have medical advice for his other children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese people were very good observers. Even if they didn\u2019t have the scientific tools we have today, there was nothing wrong with their brains.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery time I read something in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/\">The New York Times<\/a> that Leonardo da Vinci had to hide the fact that he was doing dissection, and every time I listen to a tour guide in Italy tell these stories, it just kills me. I don\u2019t know how to get rid of this myth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":155036,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2014\/04\/body-exhibit\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":0},"title":"Body exhibit","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"A new exhibit, \u201cBody of Knowledge,\u201d offers a five-century foray through the culture and history of anatomy and dissection, from the days of autopsies in private homes to the present debate over using digital ways to study the body without saws and knives. The exhibit will offer a special viewing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/body_green_1941_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/body_green_1941_605_1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/body_green_1941_605_1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":339479,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2022\/03\/new-genetic-insights-on-common-cause-of-heart-attack-in-younger-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":1},"title":"New genetic insights on common cause of heart attack in younger women","author":"harvardgazette","date":"March 2, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Disruptive variants in genes involved in the production of collagen are implicated in spontaneous coronary artery dissection, a major cause of heart attacks in women under 50.","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"3d illustration of female internal anatomy on black gradient background.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/iStock-1785.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/iStock-1785.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/iStock-1785.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/iStock-1785.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":304105,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/05\/lessons-from-the-center-of-the-states-pandemic\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":2},"title":"At the center of the outbreak","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"May 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Researcher Katharine Robb details how housing policies affect social and health crises, like the current pandemic.","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Katharine Robb giving presentation.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Defense-1_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Defense-1_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Defense-1_2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/Defense-1_2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16988,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2003\/03\/faculty-council-notice-for-march-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":3},"title":"Faculty Council notice for March 5","author":"gazetteimport","date":"March 6, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"At its 11th meeting of the year, the Faculty Council heard a report from Professor Jennifer Leaning (medicine and public health) on the work of the Committee to Address Sexual Assault at Harvard that she chairs. Present for this discussion were three members of the committee: Professor Everett Mendelsohn (history\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":219254,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2001\/02\/cabot-fellowships-awarded-to-four\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":4},"title":"Cabot Fellowships awarded to four","author":"gazetteimport","date":"February 15, 2001","format":false,"excerpt":"The annual Walter Channing Cabot Fellowships have been conferred on four members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The recipients are: Mario Davidovsky, Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music Peter Galison, Mallinckrodt Professor of the History of Science and of Physics Katharine Park, Samuel Zemurray Jr. and Doris Zemurray\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":266387,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2019\/03\/trump-kim-summit-dissected-at-harvard-seminar\/","url_meta":{"origin":78442,"position":5},"title":"\u2018Failed\u2019 Trump-Kim summit could spark real diplomacy","author":"Lian Parsons","date":"March 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A seminar at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School, planned to assess the outcomes of the Trump-Kim summit in Vietnam, instead dissected the meeting\u2019s \u201cfailure\u201d and what it means for diplomacy.","rel":"","context":"In "Nation & World"","block_context":{"text":"Nation & World","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/nation-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Katharine Moon speaking on a panel","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/02.28.19-Hanoi-Summit-Debrief-005.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/02.28.19-Hanoi-Summit-Debrief-005.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/02.28.19-Hanoi-Summit-Debrief-005.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/02.28.19-Hanoi-Summit-Debrief-005.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78442"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":276046,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78442\/revisions\/276046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78442"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=78442"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=78442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}