Medicine and Colonial Identity

by Bridie Andrews (Editor), Mary P. Sutphen (Editor)

Overview

Over the last century, identity as an avenue of inquiry has become both an academic growth industry and a problematic category of historical analysis. This volume shows how the study of medicine can provide new insights into colonial identity, and the possibility of accommodating multiple perspectives on identity within a single narrative. Contributors to this volume explore the perceived self-identity of colonizers; the adoption of western and traditional medicine as complementary aspects of a new, modern and nationalist identity; the creation of a modern identity for women in the colonies; and the expression of a healer's identity by physicians of traditional medicine.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134441174
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/02/2003
Series:	Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	160
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mary P. Sutphen works as a consultant and is currently completing a book entitled Imperial Hygiene: Medicine and Public Health in the British Empire, 1880-1931, an analysis of the history of laboratory medicine in the British Empire.
Bridie Andrews is an Assistant Professor at Harvard University. Her publications include The Making of Modern Chinese Medicine and an edited volume with Andrew Cunningham entitled Western Medicine as Contested Knowledge.

Table of Contents

1. Bridie Andrews and Mary P. Sutphen Introduction2. Maneesha Lal 'The Ignorance of Women is the House of Illness': Gender, Nationalism and Health Reform in Colonial North India3. David Gordon A Sword of Empire? Medicine and Colonialism at Kingwilliamstown, Xhosaland, 1856-18914. Hilary Marland Midwives, Missions and Reform: Colonizing Dutch Childbirth Services at Home and Abroad c.19005. Philippa Mein Smith New Zealand Milk for 'Building Britons'6. Suzanne Parry Tropical Medicine and Colonial Identity in Northern Australia7. Roy MacLeod Colonial Doctors and National Myths: On Telling Lives in Australian Medical Biography

Editorial Reviews

'This short edited collection of six papers represents an important step forward in the medical history of colonialism.' - Medical History, January 2005, 49(1)

'This book ... makes an important contribution to a growing awareness of the potential for fruitful interdisciplinarity between medical history and cultural studies.' - Medical History, January 2005, 49(1)

From the Publisher