I have to object to the idea that the ancients recognized FAS.  FAS is a
modern understanding of the effects of alcohol, rooted medically in the
development of teratology, politically in the post-thalidomide world of the
womb as danger zone and in the abortion debates of the 1970s, and culturally
in the maternal-fetal politics of the late twentieth century.  Societies have
always observed the negative effects of alcohol abuse on offspring (the
concept of alcoholic degeneracy in the 19th century for example) but their
explanations are rooted in particular contexts (thus Goddard's description of
people who clearly displayed the stigmata of what we now term FAS as
victims of heredtary feeblemindedness which was expressed as alcoholism in
their parents).
 
Joan Brumberg makes this point very eloquently in her analysis of Anorexia
Nervosa (Fasting Girls) which she distinguishes from the Holy Anoxoria
described by early modern observers.
 
So, for the purposes of discussion on this list, can we distinguish between
observations of alcohol-related birth defects, and FAS?
 
Janet Golden