2024/03/19 by Holly Fletcher · 1 voice
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Climate change #Computer science #Environmental change #Geology #Historical Economic and Social Studies #History #Oceanography #Sleep (system call)
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/hisres/htae001
openalex publication_date 2024/03/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Bringing environmental history, the history of medicine and the history of poverty into conversation with material culture studies, this article argues that sleep management in early modern England involved environmental practices in which bodies and matter were interwoven. Using records relating to the Worshipful Company of Upholders in London as a starting point, the article uncovers for the first time the range of animal and plant matter upon which early modern people slept. In so doing it transforms our view of the sleeping conditions of the early modern poor and demonstrates the significance of place-specific, material knowledge for health care practices.