The Correct Way to Interpret Human Physiology
Nov 26th, 2011 by sarahkeller
(note that this was the first comparison I ever made between bodies are medical forms – it’s really general, and not very well written)
(and upon further review the grammar is just….EW! This is why we check our spelling and grammar, so we don’t add academic trash to our blogs!)
The Correct Way to Interpret Human Physiology
If one were to say that, “ideas of human physiology and anatomy have drastically changed over the past millennia,” they would be making a generalization. This is because, not only can the human body be interpreted in different ways depending on which culture is observing it, but there are also theories about how the human body functions from hundreds of years ago that are similar to how the body is viewed to function today. An example of this is the comparison of how the Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Chinese viewed reproductive physiology and how they are in some ways similar to what is known in modern human physiology. While the Ancient Greek use of reproductive terminology is similar to that of modern physiology, some of the Chinese concepts are closer to those read today in modern physiology textbooks. Modern human physiology has the ability to merge newly discovered knowledge of the human body with many cultures’ unique interpretations of the human body. With this merge of new and old ideas, one can argue that there is no single effective way of understanding the human body and how it works.
When comparing how reproductive physiology was seen in Ancient China and in Ancient Greece, one must first understand that each theory is different, not because one of them was more correct than the other, but because each of the two societies saw their bodies differently. The information about Ancient China in this essay is focused in particular on how the people of Han Dynasty understood how to create a baby, and how the Daoists of China in the Dynasty viewed the male and female reproductive systems and how reproduction took place. The focus of the Ancient Greek reproductive physiology is during the time of the Greek physician Galen, between 131 and 201 C.E.
According to Mawangdui text, “Taichan Shu, The Book of The Generation of the Fetus”, a woman becomes pregnant after she finishes her menstruation period, when a man has sexual intercourse with her for three days.The unborn baby’s gender is dependant on rituals to engender the baby. Most Peoples’ intent was to have a boy, because at that time it was a boy that brought prosperity and wealth to the family. Depending on how many days after a woman’s menstruation period a man has sexual intercourse with her, the baby will be born a certain gender.Odd numbers are Yang and a male birth, and even numbers are Yin and result in a female birth. The baby’s gender is also based on what a woman eats during her pregnancy, the kind of vapor she breaths, the gender of the animals that she observes, and what she wears.The Taichan Shu also explains how a fetus develops. During the fourth to eight month of pregnancy the fetus receives the Five Agents.Each of these Five Agents represents an element that creates a part of the baby. Water produces blood, fire produces vapor, metal produces muscle, wood produces bone, and earth produces skin.
Moving on to the Daoist interpretation of what reproduction looks like, one notices that there is more imagery in the Daoist interpretation of reproduction than in the Mawangdui interpretation of reproduction. Daoist ideas are often shown in the Mawangdui texts, as they are timeless, but there are conceptual differences in physical anatomy of the human body in Daosim and the Mawangdui texts. It is the Daoist belief that men keep their semen and women keep their menstrual blood in the main Cinnabar Field of “The Daoist Body”. These sexual fluids are kept for a time when yin and yang meet in the “harmonious union” of reproduction. The Cinnabar Field “is [also] the embryo’s home.”
The Ancient Greek interpretation of human reproductive physiology is certainly different than that of the Ancient Chinese. Sexual fluids are seen differently in the way that when a baby is being formed in the mother’s womb after intercourse, it is “the female blood that [provides] the material substance to the body, while male pneuma made from the male sperm [articulates] the body’s form.” In Ancient Greece, pneuma flows through conduits separately from blood and carries sensations and will. Pneuma is “linked to the activities and essence of the soul.” There is no such thing as Yin and Yang in Ancient Greek medicine, but like in Ancient Chinese medicine there is an essence of vitality. Vitality is Qi or vapor in China and pneuma in Greece, although the meanings are slightly different.
Ancient Greek reproductive physiology is also concerned with getting rid of unwanted bodily fluids. The Greek philosopher, Galen, thought that having too much semen could potentially make a man ill, although this idea varies from text to text.This variation is shown by Aristotle’s thought that any erectile emission should be for reproductive purposes. Aristotle’s idea was similar to that in Ancient China, where semen is seen as vital to creating new life and that it is not to be wasted because it could be used to create life in the future.Reproductive physiology in Ancient Greece and Ancient China both have an element within them that the male and female reproductive fluids join together and help in the creation of a new human. The difference between the theories is that in Ancient Greek physiology the reproductive fluids are what end up making the body of a human, and in Ancient Chinese physiology it is the reproductive fluids that help the union of Yin and Yang to occur. It is the Five Agents that fulfill the task of creating the flesh and Qi.
Although Greek medicine became one of many bases for modern medicine today, many of its past aspects have changed due to new scientific technologies. For instance, it is now known that it is not the female menstrual fluid that makes up the body of a fetus, but that it enables the growth of the placenta and permits active transport of nutrients to the fetus to occur. The idea has changed, but stays within the same anatomical structures of the human body. Ancient Chinese medical practices still live along side modern medical practices because they are just as relevant to the Chinese body as modern medicine is. Acupuncture still exists all over the world as a pain reducing treatment. There are tai chi classes and classes to learn breathing exercises at most community centers. Chinese reproductive anatomy and physiology still exist within the Chinese body, even if not in the same state as in the Mawangdui texts.
In present medical teachings of human anatomy and physiology, such as those taught at the University of British Columbia, it is learned that an embryo is formed and grows by cells duplicating themselves, adding selective parts of two sets of DNA in the form of a coiled double helix into each cell. The sets of DNA, which are selectively duplicated, come from the parents of an unborn child. This merging of sets of DNA is similar to Yin and Yang’s harmonious union in the cinnabar field. The idea that the cinnabar field inhabiting the area three inches below the belly button and in front of the kidneys, is also similar to where the male and female reproductive systems are in modern human anatomy.These different ideas can coincide with each other, because they are both describing the same action in the same part of the body, but a line is drawn between the two ideas through medical treatment of the cinnabar field and the female reproductive system.
When a person makes the generalization that ideas of human physiology have changed over time, they have most likely only been in contact with one kind of idea of human physiology. The lack of contact with any other understanding of human physiology could be attributed to the person’s culture predominantly using one understanding of human physiology. In this essay two understandings of human physiology have been briefly examined to establish that neither of them is better than the other, and they can both exist along side each other. The Ancient Greeks and the Ancient Chinese never sought out to make their understanding of the human body the one correct way to view it, but understood the human body in their own unique interpretations of it. Each culture’s unique idea of anatomy and physiology changed with the cultures themselves. Ideas of human physiology may change over time, but the initial change is based on how a culture understands human physiology.
(bibliography available upon request)