Colonialism and Medicine

1. Colonialism and Medicine Lecture on 19-11-02

2. Med anthropology and history • Recent development of MA to look at social actions in history; Medical History has become more important as a discipline for MA • In the process colonialism has been investigated

3. AUTHORS and MA on colonialism and medicine • F FANON 1965: ethnographies without much historical dimension, describes culture clash between colonial MDs and natives, humiliation and hatred. Was criticised by historians for his extremist views and harsh statements. • ARNOLD D 1988: small pox in India: variolation instead of vaccination [variolation: usage of human antigene which can cause violent outbreak of small pox, more dangerous than vaccination, vaccination: with antigene of cowpox to produce antibodies] • VAUGHAN M 1991 and 1994: we cannot make a general history of colonialism in Africa. She gives a sense of how “the other” was constructed, photography is dehumanising. African sexuality was phathologised in scientific, rational ways to show that they are naturally abnormal. Colonisers termed African women as “free”. But colonisers brought diseases to the colonies ( measles, syphillis) • Aztecs were wiped out by epidemics • We are still living in the aftermath of colonialsim ( see AIDS in the context of syphillis in Africa)

4. Authors • COMAROFF1992: gives historical dimension, Romanticism of explorers “humane imperialism of missionaries, state discipline through public health. There was only concern that black labor forces were not reproduced sufficiently because of epidemics. First military medicine developed because the army needed to be fit, second colonial population, third native labor force • JEFFREY: Politics of health in India • There is a debate whether early colonialism emphasised curative aspects more than preventive public health. • TURSHEN 1984: Marxist perspective: social agencies produce disease. The author is now an activist. The book has an enormous value because it emphasises the human agency in the creation of the natural environment. She analyses the health effects of social relations under the capitalist system. Debate: ahistorical view on political economy by health writers whose view does not take into account change of capitalist views. “give the people their land and thy will be healthy” “Africa’s continuous poverty is a product of colonial history” “health is a product of labor” al these views are debatable. Market economy in E-Africa was destroyed in 19thc , says Turshen. Debatable. • TAUSSIG 1987: focuses on human interaction between colonisers and natives.

5. Colonialsim • “healthful savage” of Europeans • the wild is projected into the living, animalism, uncivilised, “the other” gives life energy, • advocating colonialism in the name of humanitarianism and Christianity • native nakedness became an obsession with evangelists • “idea” that natives were full of disease, although they were described as very healthy before epidemics came in • but colonists assumed that African had always been very unhealthy. • Plantation system promoted political and economic power. • Famines among the locals resulted form their land being taken by plantations away from substantial farming. Men were laborers, woman could only do limited farming, no force to rode the forest land, over- cropping on little land, resulted in tse tse flies settling in bushes around the houses ( ecological niche). Tse Tse epidemic in 1933 were termed “natural disasters” not taking human agency into account. Also • calling disease “ tropical disease” where it is colonial and poverty related.