Book ID: CBB666452646

Uncertainty, Anxiety, Frugality: Dealing with Leprosy in the Dutch East Indies, 1816-1942 (2018)

unapi

Bergen, Leo van (Author)


National University of Singapore Press


Publication Date: 2018
Physical Details: 316
Language: English

The story of leprosy in the Dutch East Indies from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century reveals important themes in the colonial enterprise across the territory that is today’s Indonesia. Operating in a territory with only a few hundred Western-trained doctors and a population in the tens of millions, Dutch colonial officials approached leprosy with uncertainty and anxiety, going so far as to remove sufferers from public view with campaigns targeted at anyone “looking ugly.” Colonial science considered leprosy a hereditary disease of tropical subjects, and therefore undeserving of the colonial government’s limited resources. The leprosariums were emptied. At the start of the twentieth century, a growing understanding that a bacillus spread leprosy caused a panic that the disease might spread from the tropics to the colonial metropole. The mixed emotions of pity, fear, and revulsion associated with management of the disease intensified, and fed into broader debates on colonial policy. The experts were unsure, and resources were never forthcoming, and despite a view that “bacteria are the same everywhere,” Dutch leprosy treatment in the East Indies mobilized traditional healing practices and relied on home care. Leo van Bergen’s detailed, attentive study to changing policies for treatment and prevention of leprosy (now often called Hansen’s disease) is fascinating medical history, and provides a useful lens for understanding colonialism in Indonesia.

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Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB666452646/

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Authors & Contributors
Junaidi
Pols, Hans
Kiki Maulana Affandi
Neumeyer, Sybille
Lila Pelita Hati
Nurhabsyah
Concepts
Colonialism
Netherlands, colonies
Medicine
Public health
Leprosy (Hansen's disease)
Tropical medicine
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Enlightenment
17th century
Places
Indonesia
East Indies
Hawaii (U.S.)
Netherlands
Europe
China
Institutions
Rockefeller Foundation
Red Cross Societies
Dutch Red Cross
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