New Diseases, Newer Categories: Ayurveda’s Engagement with Epidemics in Travancore

IF 0.2 Q2 HISTORY
Burton Cleetus
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The advent of Western modernity in India, as a by-product of British colonialism, brought about considerable strain within Indian medical traditions. Indigenous medical traditions which were operating within the broad humoral theory of disease causation came to be subjected to the logic of biomedicine. By the late nineteenth century, as the British in India consolidated their state systems and the princely states modelled their administrative structures in accordance with the British state, there was an increased acceptance of biomedical standards against indigenous medical norms. This was further accentuated by the fear of epidemics, which suggested that diseases spread from person to person and could affect large geographic areas bringing death and suffering in its wake. Disease control and management had, therefore, become a major concern for both the state systems in the British presidencies and in the princely states. The prevalence of contagious diseases offered a challenge to reorganize the public health systems of the states, yet they also provided an opportunity to legitimize state sovereignty over the bodies of its subjects. Diseases that were previously seen as localized and situated within culturally specific locales were now increasingly subjected to the governing mechanisms of the state. This paper examines how the medical bureaucratization of Travancore, in the south-western part of the Indian subcontinent, affected local healthcare traditions in the face of expanding fear of epidemics, ultimately led to the reshaping of indigenous medical systems.
新疾病,新类别:阿育吠陀与特拉凡科流行病的接触
作为英国殖民主义的副产品,西方现代性在印度的到来给印度的医学传统带来了相当大的压力。在广泛的体液致病理论范围内运作的土著医学传统,开始服从于生物医学的逻辑。到19世纪后期,随着英国人在印度巩固了他们的国家制度,土邦按照英国国家的模式建立了他们的行政结构,人们越来越多地接受生物医学标准,而不是当地的医疗规范。对流行病的恐惧进一步加剧了这一点,这表明疾病在人与人之间传播,并可能影响到大片地理区域,造成死亡和痛苦。因此,疾病控制和管理成为了英国总统制和君主制国家体系的主要关注点。传染病的流行对重组各州的公共卫生系统提出了挑战,但它们也提供了一个使国家主权对其臣民的身体合法化的机会。以前被认为是局部的疾病,存在于特定文化的地方,现在越来越多地受到国家管理机制的影响。本文考察了印度次大陆西南部的特拉凡科的医疗官僚化如何在面对不断扩大的流行病恐惧时影响当地的医疗传统,最终导致了本土医疗系统的重塑。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.40
自引率
40.00%
发文量
15
期刊介绍: Studies in History reflects the considerable expansion and diversification that has occurred in historical research in India in recent years. The old preoccupation with political history has been integrated into a broader framework which places equal emphasis on social, economic and cultural history. Studies in History examines regional problems and pays attention to some of the neglected periods of India"s past. The journal also publishes articles concerning countries other than India. It provides a forum for articles on the writing of different varieties of history, and contributions challenging received wisdom on long standing issues.
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