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.

Related link: The Society for the Social History of Medicine
eBook available with sample pages: 0203522311

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.

This volume examines important aspects of China's century-long search to provide appropriate and effective health care for its people. Four subjects--disease and healing, encounters and accommodations, institutions and professions, and people's health--organize discussions across case studies of schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, mental health, and tobacco and health. Among the book s significant conclusions are the importance of barefoot doctors in disseminating western medicine, the improvements in medical health and services during the long Sino-Japanese war, and the important role of the Chinese consumer. Intended for an audience of health practitioners, historians, and others interested in the history of medicine and health in China, the book is one of three commissioned by the Chinese Medical Board to mark its centennial in 2014."

A leading authority explains the origins and history of Chinese medicine from its beginnings in antiquity to today. Paul U. Unschuld describes medicine's close connection with culture and politics throughout Chinese history. He brings together texts, techniques, and worldviews to understand changing Chinese attitudes toward healing and the significance of traditional Chinese medicine in both China and the Western world. Unschuld reveals the emergence of a Chinese medical tradition built around a new understanding of the human being, considering beliefs in the influence of cosmology, numerology, and the supernatural on the health of the living. He describes the variety of therapeutic approaches in Chinese culture, the history of pharmacology and techniques such as acupuncture, and the global exchange of medical knowledge. Insights are offered into the twentieth-century decline of traditional medicine, as military defeats caused reformers and revolutionaries to import medical knowledge as part of the construction of a new China. Unschuld also recounts the reception of traditional Chinese medicine in the West since the 1970s, where it is often considered an alternative to Western medicine at the same time as China seeks to incorporate elements of its medical traditions into a scientific framework. This concise and compelling introduction to medical thought and history suggests that Chinese medicine is also a guide to Chinese civilization.

Medical care in nineteenth-century China was spectacularly pluralistic: herbalists, shamans, bone-setters, midwives, priests, and a few medical missionaries from the West all competed for patients. This book examines the dichotomy between "Western" and "Chinese" medicine, showing how it has been greatly exaggerated. As missionaries went to lengths to make their medicine more acceptable to Chinese patients, modernizers of Chinese medicine worked to become more "scientific" by eradicating superstition and creating modern institutions. Andrews challenges the supposed superiority of Western medicine in China while showing how "traditional" Chinese medicine was deliberately created in the image of a modern scientific practice.