On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, laura jacobus wrote:
>
> Can anyone tell me of any evidence that women were
> responsible for preparing the dead for burial in medieval
> societies. It seems to be the case that women are the
> ones who lay out corpses in traditional Indian and Irish
> communities (or maybe I'm wrong about this) and I'd like to
> know if they did so in the middle ages, especially in Italy
>
I'm pretty sure that this was normally the case, though probably not with
male religious. I do recall that some years ago, Diane Owen Hughes was
planning a work on women and mourning in Italy which involved
participation in funeral services. I don't know whatever happened to the
plan but Diane is at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Jo Ann
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