Western Medicine As Contested Knowledge

This is the first volume to examine the range and extent of non-Western responses to Western medicine across the spectrum of Western imperialist influence, from Japan in the East to Navajo of the North American plains in the West. Medicine has always been a significant tool of empire. In the nineteenth century, Western missionaries were candid about the value of medicine for introducing the heathen first to Christianity and then to trade with the west. Even today, Western-defined health programmes remain potent markers of the level of modernisation - and hence 'civilisation' - achieved by a country, and are frequently tied to the terms of international loans.