Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Departamento de Biología Doctoral dissertation “A study of the lifestyle and health parameters of nuns from convents on the Iberian Peninsula in modern times” Natasa Sarkic Dissertation director: Dr. Jesús Herrerín López Madrid, 2017 1 Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Departamento de Biología Tesis doctoral “Estudio del modo de vida y los parámetros de salud de mujeres en conventos de clausura de la Península Ibérica en época medieval y moderna” Natasa Sarkic Director: Dr. Jesús Herrerín López Madrid, 2017 3 I Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of the daily lives of nuns from convents on the Iberian Peninsula in modern time (16th – 20th century) by examining their skeletal remains. A study of female monastic communities does not mean just “filling the gap”, but expending and enriching the knowledge of the most crucial chapter of female history in Christianity. It is important to remember that nuns were the only women who were able to live an independent life and acquire education, which was denied even to the women of the highest class, and that some of the most significant female poets, writers, painters, philosophers, composers… spent their life behind convent walls. Also, it was the only community of women, run by women, where they were free to make their own decision on administration, to take care of documentation, and even more important - finances. For that reason, many historians and theoreticians see in nunneries the origin of feminism. Therefore, the idea of this study is to investigate not only the basic aspects of physical anthropology (such as osteology, anthropometry, paleodemography), but also the nutrition, the change of their health and diet before and after entering the monastery, traumas, degenerative diseases, dental health, occupational stress, infectious diseases, as well as possible differences in the way of life between monasteries. Obtained results were compared to the secular female population of the same period and the same region, in order to determine in which way their lifestyles differed. For the purposes of this study, three monastic and three secular populations, from Spain and Portugal, were analysed. 5 II Resumen El objetivo de esta tesis es conocer la vida cotidiana de monjas de conventos de la Península Ibérica en los tiempos modernos (siglos XVI - XX) examinando sus restos esqueléticos. Un estudio de las comunidades monásticas femeninas no supone sólo “llenar la brecha”, sino ampliar e enriquecer el conocimiento del capítulo más importante de la historia femenina en el cristianismo. Es importante recordar que las monjas eran las únicas mujeres que podían vivir una vida independiente y adquirir una educación que se negaba incluso a las mujeres de la clase más alta, y que algunas de las poetisas, escritoras, pintoras, filósofas o compositoras más significantivas... pasaron su vida detrás de los muros de un convento. Además, se trata de la única comunidad de mujeres, dirigida por mujeres, en la que eran libres de tomar decisiones sobre la administración, cómo cuidar la documentación y, aún más importante, sobre las finanzas. Por esta razón, muchos historiadores y teóricos ven en los monasterios el origen del feminismo. Por lo tanto, la idea de este estudio es investigar no solo los aspectos básicos de la antropología física (como la osteología, la antropometría, la paleodemografía), sino también la nutrición, los cambios de la salud y dieta antes y después de entrar en el monasterio, los traumas, la salud dental, el estrés ocupacional y las enfermedades infecciosas, así como las posibles diferencias en el modo de vida entre los diferentes monasterios. Los resultados obtenidos se compararon con la población femenina secular del mismo período y de la misma región, con el fin de determinar de qué modo sus estilos de vida eran diferentes. Para los propósitos de este estudio se analizaron tres poblaciones monásticas y tres poblaciones seculares desde en España y Portugal. 7 III Acknowledgment I would like to thank everyone who stood by me during the time of writing of this thesis and who have helped me and supported me either in a practical or an emotional way. To my friend and thesis director, Jesús Herrerín, for transmitting his passion and knowledge of paleopathology. To Margarita Carmenate for being one of the kindest human beings I have ever met. To UAM for traveling grants. To Ana Luisa Santos, Francisco Curate, Ana Maria Silva and all other wonderful people from the University of Coimbra for their help during my stay. To Rafael Caballero and the people from “Palacio del Infante Don Juan Manuel Hotel Spa” for allowing me to work with the material from the cloister in Belmonte. To Lucía Muñoz for helping me every time when I needed it most. To Álvaro Monge and Laura González-Garrido for their feedback, cooperation and, of course, their friendship. 9 To those with whom I have had the pleasure to collaborate with during this project: Aurora Grandal, Olalla Lopez-Costas, Rosa Dinares, Rosa Gaspar, Darko Ilić and Goran Žebić. To Mario Novak and Željka Bedić for all the advice, support and beers. To a brave young woman Alexandra Elbakyan for her project Sci-Hub. Without the access to the literature that Sci-Hub permitted writing of this thesis would not have been possible. To Lydia & Dobby, Kristin & Angel and Miriam & Dani for their hospitality and friendship. To my family and friends for their love and encouragement. To Radoš for being such a perfect life companion. 10 IV Table of contents I ABSTRACT II RESUMEN III ACKNOWLEDGMENT IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 17 1. INTRODUCCIÓN (ESP) ......................................................................................... 45 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS ............................................................................... 69 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................. 112 4. DISCUSSION. .......................................................................................................... 185 5. CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................ 203 5. CONCLUSIÓN (ESP) ............................................................................................. 211 6. LIST OF REFERENCES ....................................................................................... 220 7. ANNEX ..................................................................................................................... 252 11 V List of abbreviations in the dissertation Monastic populations: POB MON 1 - The necropolis of the convent of Santa Catalina de Siena, Belmonte, (Spain) 16th-18th century POB MON 2 - The necropolis from the choir of the convent of Santa Catalina de Siena, Belmonte, (Spain) 19th-20th century POB MON 3 - The necropolis of the convent Nossa Senhora de Aracoeli, Alcacer do Sal (Portugal) 16th-19th Control populations: POB CIV 1 - The necropolis from the church of El Salvador in Toledo (Spain), 16th-18th century POB CIV 2 - The civil necropolis from the church of Santa Catalina de Siena, Belmonte, (Spain), 19th century POB CIV 3 - The necropolis from the convent São Francisco, Santarém (Portugal), 15th- 19th century 13 We rejoice that we have children, we ought rather to shed tears of blood when those children are girls. The Abbess of Castro, Stendhal We are arrant knaves, all. Believe none of us. Go thy ways to a nunnery. Hamlet, Shakespeare Illustration by Sanja Blagojević 15 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1. Historical introduction During the late Middle Ages and Early Modern times women made a half (Herlihy, 1985), and later even three-quarters of the total population in Catholic monasteries (Lynch&Adamo, 2014). However, in various general histories of the Church, nuns and nunneries hold not more than a couple of pages1. Female monasteries had a very important role in society. Not only were they the centre of spirituality, but also the centre of education, and they often provided shelter and food for beggars, medical care for the sick and home for orphans and the elderly poor. The lifestyle of nuns, their purity, asceticism and erudition represented the ideal manifestation of Christian virtues and contemporaries praised their goodness to the skies, admitting they lived the most sacred form of life that was possible to people. Nuns lived in communities under vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, dedicating their time to prayer, contemplation, intellectual and physical work. Many of female monasteries produced their own food, wine and olive oil, so in that way they were completely self-sustainable. Spain was always one of the countries with the highest number of female monasteries. Even nowadays, according to the latest data published in 2003 by Conferencia Episcopal Española2, one fourth of the total number of nunneries in the world are located in Spain. Nuns in cloisters, who spend their whole lives hidden behind thick walls, have always aroused curiosity. Up to now many novels, history books and essays were written about the life of nuns in Spain, but by now, only a few studies, have been published focusing on skeletal remains: 1 See for example Lynch and Adamo (2014) The medieval church: a brief history, where only 5 out of the total of 345 pages were dedicated to female monasticism. 2 Retrieved from