Imperial medicine and indigenous societies / edited by David Arnold.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Arnold, David, 1946-

Series:

Studies in imperialism (Manchester, England).

Studies in imperialism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Medicine--Colonies--Europe--History.

Medicine.

Medicine--History--19th century.

Medicine--History--20th century.

Social & cultural anthropology--History of medicine--Colonialism & imperialism.

Social & cultural anthropology.

Developing countries--history.

Developing countries.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (258 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

MSI edition.

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2017.

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Medicine,' declared a French imperialist, is the 'sole excuse for colonialism.' If colonial rule had its harsh and negative side, the work of the doctor ennobled and justified it. Historians, even nationalist writers, have echoed this view. The white man's medicine at least was always welcome. But was it as rational and humanitarian as is commonly supposed, one of imperialism's 'undeniable benefits? Was there no doubt or suspicion? Might it not in fact have been another weapon in the armoury of alien rule? For too long on the margins of the history of empire, the study of disease and medicine has begun to move centre-stage. This book investigates the purposes, nature and impact of Western medicine in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It ranges widely, from the Belgians in the Congo to the Americans in the Philippines, from the treatment of European 'lunatics' in India to the 'discovery' of Third World malnutrition. But the central concern is the way in which colonial doctors and imperial medicine shaped the interaction between rulers and ruled. At first largely confined to the needs of Europeans abroad, Western medicine rose in the late nineteenth century to global assertiveness. At a time of expanding empires medical science gave imperial administrations a sense of purpose, a confidence in their capacity to transform entire societies in the light of their own notions of progress, sanitation and science. Yet they were held back as much by political constraints and cultural resistance as by technical limitations. By 1930 the first, 'heroic' age of Western medical intervention was over. This volume points the way to a major reappraisal. It will be of particular importance to students of imperialism and the history of medicine. It also raises issues relevant to current debates over health and development in the Third World. It sheds fresh light on the politics of imperialism and the anthropology of medical belief and practice.

Contents:

Introduction : disease, medicine and empire / David Arnold

The European insane in British India, 1800-1858 : a case study in psychiatry and colonial rule / Waltraud Ernst

Smallpox and colonial medicine in nineteenth-century India / David Arnold

Medicine and racial politics : changing images of the New Zealand Maori in the nineteenth century / Malcolm Nicolson

Sleeping sickness epidemics and public health in the Belgian Congo / Maryinez Lyons

Cholera and the origins of the American sanitary order in the Philippines / Reynaldo C. Ileto

Plague and the tensions of empire : India, 1896-1918 / I.J. Catanach

The influenza pandemic in Southern Rhodesia : a crisis of comprehension / Terence Ranger

Bilharzia : a problem of 'native health' : 1900-1950 / John Farley

The discovery of colonial malnutrition between the wars / Michael Worboys.

Notes:

Includes earlier versions of papers presented at a conference held by the Society for the Social History of Medicine at the University of Aston on Apr. 19, 1986.

Includes bibliographical references and index [delete if appropriate].

Description based on print record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

OCLC:

1232846532