-Looking for cases, not to detailed, in which modernity, or modern knowledge benefited the analyzation of the specific historical context.
-This can also be a negative relationship.
-My own claim is that modern knowledge of anatomy and myology (muscle) benefits the analyzation of the past. Of course the historical context stays the most important.
-Prefare cases in biology, chemistry, anatomy, art.
-Other are also welcome.
-Or should historians leave modernity as far away as possible?
-History of ideas, history of science, history of history
Actually, it's not easy to answer your question. I'll try to provide an answer, and hope it doesn't sidestep your question. In the recent years, some interesting approaches to explaining history have been put forward: microhistory, where the history or historical episodes of import within small communities are studied in details; mobility studies, which address the way ideologies or ideas are recreated in different epochs (see Greenblatt 2010 for further references). Even Goethe's notion of Weltliteratur comes in handy: he posited literature is not limited to a specific area or time, but it's transnational. Hope my answer's sound and coherent.
You may want to consider reading Foucault and his pioneering study The Birth of the Clinic and the notion of medical gaze. I'm sure there could be interesting information related to what you're researching. Hope this follow-up response makes sense!
Andrea has put you in the right direction. My project An Unusual Power deals with how medicine has developed with the changes in medical perception, and how elements of the past stay with us.
If you consider the body to have had, and still has, symbolic meaning then that can explain medical practice of both the past and present. For example, the body can be seen as a commodity, an item of trade, especially upon death. It was at some points in history considered sacred, the ancient Egyptians and Christianity viewed the body as expressing concepts of goodness, and if not intact that affected afterlife.
Peter, another follow-up response you may want to consider. Dutch paintings in the 17th Century often dealt with dissection and anatomy. Don’t know how broad the scope of your research is, but it’s worth looking at.
Just a further word. In Europe, late 18th/early 19th. the corpse because of anatomy was used as a currency and source of wealth, with corpses sent between different European nations.
corpses as a commodity has continued into the present day. About 20 years ago there was a scandal at a UK hospital (if I remember this correctly) that had kept parts of dead babies without gaining permission from the parents. The point of this, is the way corpses are viewed, or parts of them, as a commodity without sentimental or any emotional value or symbolism.
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