Imperial Contagions

Download or read book Imperial Contagions written by Robert Peckham and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Imperial Contagions argues that there was no straightforward shift from older, enclavist models of colonial medicine to a newer emphasis on prevention and treatment of disease among indigenous populations as well as European residents. It shows that colonial medicine was not at all homogeneous "on the ground" but was riven with tensions and contradictions. Indigenous elites contested and appropriated Western medical knowledge and practices for their own purposes. Colonial policies contained contradictory and cross-cutting impulses. This book challenges assumptions that colonial regimes were uniformly able to regulate indigenous bodies and that colonial medicine served as a "tool of empire."