Autism in history and pre-history

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What do you think it would have been like to be autistic in different time periods, such as the 1800's, medieval times, or pre agriculture?

I imagine a lot of the people in history who were considered inexplicably eccentric were autistic. Lots of old stories seem to reference that one odd loner who lives off in the woods.

A bit of a broad question, but I think it's interesting to think about. There would be different sensory issues and social problems to contend with at different periods of time. There would also be value to be found in some special interests, especially people who were good at committing facts to memory before written language was wide-spread.

I have a theory/hypothesis that the seemingly higher levels of autistic people in Australia are due to it being a penal colony for Britain, where at the time, autistic people in the UK would be a higher population of the "criminal element" due to the conditions there at the time giving autistic people little choice but to turn to crime to survive. Of course, this doesn't account for the rest of the world's autistic population/I have no access to resources to do an actual study/it's just my thoughts, etc.

It is likely that treatment of autistics was much worse before I was born (I remember the 1960s), than what I grew up with.  The beatings would likely have been more severe.  My parents (and others of their generation) would tell us kids horror stories of children who were "prone to having fits" being locked in back rooms and attics, or simply sent away, never to be heard from again.  Had I been born in the 1850s, I would likely have been sold to a "Freak Show" or placed in a work-house just to get rid of me.

I guess technology has accelerated in recent decades, and that things didn't change so quickly back in the day, which would have been a bit of relief to Aspies. Judging by the old books I've read, written language was clearer and had fewer mistakes in it. I suppose the only people who could write were pretty well-educated. I've noticed a number of characters in old novels who seem to have had strong Aspie traits - characters who don't do small talk or have special interests, etc. I've also read quite a few critiques of various aspects of what looks like NT social behaviour. Not that I think life was overall more Aspie-friendly back then. For one thing, political correctness barely existed.

I noticed this a long time ago in an ancient copy of a "science" journal:
"He often attempted too much accuracy in his description of minute things." - John Hunter [Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. 1792 82, p.128]
That's the earliest description of a likely ASD trait I've found so far.

I'm glad that it's 2023 and not the 1850s. I thought that being a kid on the spectrum in the 80s was hell. I often forget about kids who were growing up in the 60s and earlier decades.

A lot of people were sent to insane asylums, particularly women. Some of my ancestors went to workhouses and their ancestry papers say that they were "invalids" or had "fits", which I assume are either epilepsy, shutdowns, or even meltdowns.

I think it might have been OK to be the special child growing up, so long as gender norms and harsh discipline were avoided by sympathetic families. Families who depended heavily on the person's physical labour (men's work or women's) would have been more demanding. Autistic adults and parents would have had a very difficult time with sensory wearing the ridiculous clothes and not having access to heat, air conditioning, or even cars for transportation. Sometimes when it's very humid I imagine having to wear those heavy dresses with underlayers, with uncomfortable sanitary materials, cooking in small rooms on an open fire with no AC, or walking miles to church in the hot sun while pregnant. It makes me want to pass out. Likewise with the cold, like that scene in Jane Eyre when their wash basins freeze over with ice at night. The lack of indoor plumbing and the fact toilet roll wasn't invented, or that people couldn't shower, gives me the shivers. Everything sounds so uncomfortable and quite frankly, smelly.

I think it would have been hell because of all my sensory issues, even if I were lucky enough to live alone. One family of my ancsetors were wool combers. They lived in a two room cottage in Haworth, full of sheep in the winter months. I'm allergic to wool and can't even breathe the fibres from a distance. I'm turning red just thinking about the rashes and hives I'd get, but have to cover in those heavy clothes.

Just shoot me, please.

It is challenging to speculate on what it would have been like to be autistic in different historical periods due to the limited information available. Autism was not recognized or understood as a distinct condition until relatively recently. However, it is likely that autistic individuals would have faced significant difficulties and experienced misunderstandings or stigmatization, as societal understanding and support for neurodiversity were lacking in the past.

famous and interesting

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_C ... onfinement

Living in a less crowded and noisy environment could be nice. If you found work you were good at and comfortable with then that might also be nice. And a society with arranged marriages might work better for us.

I had done some YouTube video on the subject.


DARK AGES and the MIDDLE AGES


ANCIENT CIVILISATIONS


PRE-HISTORIC and the STONE AGE