How to turn experience into science: The case of the old woman

Abstract By examining the thirteenth-century Latin poem De vetula alongside the natural philosophy of Roger Bacon, this skill-share explores the figure of the old woman, and how some aspects of ‘crone wisdom,’ (knowledge gained through life experience) became seen as scientifically valuable and authoritative. In the Latin Middle Ages old women were perceived as powerfully toxic and malicious, and as expert in naturalistic healing, infant and childcare, and all aspects of reproductive health and gynecology. But because their knowledge was empirical and dealt with phenomena, rather than causes, it was devalued. By the early modern period male physicians and surgeons appropriated aspects of ‘crone wisdom’ to secure their professional status. This skill-share also considers how the ‘grandmother hypothesis,’ which posits that postreproductive lifespan in human females is an adaptation to secure genetic survival, is a contemporary example of explaining the value of ‘crone wisdom’ in scientistic terms.