Representaciones laicas y religiosas sobre la leche materna en el discurso medieval

Abstract

Milk is the first food of the human being. Their daily and banal presence in all societies was not accompanied by indifference. It was a special center of theorizations, reflections, metaphorizations and prescriptions of different kinds. In this article we will discuss some of the lay and ecclesiastical representations that were interwoven, sometimes, or overlapping, other, throughout the Late Middle Ages around milk and breastfeeding. The same epistemic framework articulated discourses that went from medicine to theology and converged to highlight the nutritional, affective, moral and purifying faculties of this bodily fluid. Revealing it in its various manifestations is our goal.

Keywords

• milk, blood, aristocracy, virgin mary, cleansing