Skip to Content

Medicine and Colonial Identity

Edited by Bridie Andrews, Mary P. Sutphen

Published May 29th 2003 by Routledge – 160 pages

Series: Routledge Studies in the Social History of Medicine

Purchasing Options:

Description

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.

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)

Author Bio

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.

Name: Medicine and Colonial Identity (Hardback) – Routledge 
Description: Edited by Bridie Andrews, Mary P. Sutphen. 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...
Categories: Imperial & Colonial History, History of Medicine, History