SOLD OUT | Vincent Barras – Valais types

Since the end of the 19th century, a wide variety of ethnological, medical and biological studies have been carried out on the Valais and its ‘inhabitants’, its ‘population’ and its ‘types’: on the dentition of the inhabitants of the Goms Valley, blood groups in the Lötschental, alcoholism in the Saas Valley, the animism of Valais schizophrenics, the skull types of the inhabitants of the Val d’Hérens, haemoglobin anomalies in the Louable Contrée, the phthisic immunity of the natives of the lateral Alpine valleys, congenital deafness in Ayent…

Beyond the clichés of the “Alpine moron”, this heterogeneous material has helped to forge specific representations, transforming them into cultural and economic values; it has formed the basis of specific practices, in medicine as in the human sciences. We will be looking at these ways of doing science, over more than a century, in and about the Valais.

Vincent Barras is a historian and doctor. Specialising in the history of medicine, he was director of the Institut universitaire d’histoire de la médecine et de la santé publique (IUHMSP) and then of the Institut des humanités en médecine (IHM) from 1995 to 2022.

Limited seats, booking required: info@fondationopale.ch or 027 483 46 10

CHF 10.- | Friends of Fondation Opale and Abobo: free