Doctoral Dissertation Research: Gender and Race in the History of Folk Medicine

在过去的几十年里，世界上许多地方见证了助产和其他传统治疗方法的复兴。即使在据称生物医学已经站稳脚跟的城市，人们对医疗替代品的兴趣也越来越大。这一当代现象挑战了传统医学史的目的论框架，这些传统医学史长期以来一直对解释生物医学的出现、医学的职业化以及与之相关的社会医学化感兴趣，并呼吁对民间医学史进行更长时间的审查。这个项目沿袭了质疑科学或医学现代性的单线叙事的长期学术传统，认为民间治疗师过去是，现在仍然是基本的医疗提供者。被专业医生取代或被赶下台的进步叙事总是由历史学家追溯创作，落入目的论的陷阱。这个项目在过去和现在之间建立了一个对话，以调查现在的担忧如何塑造关于民间医学史的知识，反过来，过去如何在当前从业者的生活中产生共鸣。这项纵向研究重建了无证助产士、治疗师和外科医生的生活，这些人在生物医学兴起之前，在几乎没有医生的城镇和村庄提供了大部分医疗保健。推动这项研究的三个主要问题：第一，在生物医学兴起之前，谁提供了地区医疗保健的最大份额，到目前为止，哪些关键的医疗实践涉及到历史分析？第二，种族和性别如何影响民间治疗师的医疗干预？第三，当代的科学现代性叙事如何启发人们理解民间医学的历史？该项目侧重于助产士、治疗师和外科医生作为医学专家在刑事审判、民事审判中的作用，以及他们参与市政委员会的情况，在所有情况下，他们都向镇民提供医疗证明。这个项目利用从多个档案中收集的定性数据，分析了不同的行为者(患者、法官、律师和证人)如何根据性别和种族意识形态坚持适当/不适当行为的想法，以及医生如何在他们的医疗实践中挑战或复制这些想象。这个项目是对档案研究的补充，采访了目前的民间治疗师，以反思：1)他们是如何构思今天的身体、疾病和治愈的；2)他们是如何理解自己的过去和历史的。在这样做的过程中，这项研究旨在阐明性别和种族在医学专业知识建设中的作用，并阐明当今的担忧如何塑造关于过去的知识，以及过去如何在现在引起共鸣。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

During the last few decades, many parts of the world have witnessed the resurgence of midwifery and other traditional healing practices. Even in cities, sites where biomedicine has allegedly taken hold, there is a growing interest in medical alternatives. This contemporary phenomenon challenges the teleological framework of traditional histories of medicine that have long been interested in explaining the emergence of biomedicine, the professionalization of medicine, and relatedly, the medicalization of society, and calls for a longer examination of the history of folk medicine. Following a long tradition of scholarship that questions unilinear narratives of scientific or medical modernity, this project argues that folk healers were, and remain to be, essential medical providers. Progress narratives that have presented them as superseded or ousted by the professional doctor are always created retrospectively by historians and fall into the trap of teleology. This project establishes a conversation between past and present to investigate how present-day concerns shape the knowledge that is produced about the history of folk medicine, and conversely, how the past resonates in the lives of its current practitioners. This longitudinal study reconstructs the lives of unlicensed midwives, healers, and surgeons, people who provided the bulk of medical care before the rise of biomedicine in towns and villages where there were few or no doctors. Three main questions drive this research: First, who provided the lion's share of medical care regionally before the rise of biomedicine, and what were the key medical practices involved that have so far eluded historical analysis? Second, how did race and gender shape the medical interventions of folk healers? And third, how do contemporary narratives of scientific modernity inform the ways of understanding the history of folk medicine? This project focuses on the role of midwives, healers and surgeons as medical experts in criminal trials, civil trials, and their participation in municipal councils, all instances in which they provided medical certifications to townspeople. Drawing on qualitative data gathered in multiple archives, this project analyzes how diverse actors (patients, judges, lawyers, and witnesses) upheld ideas of proper/improper behavior according to gender and race ideologies, and how medical practitioners challenged or reproduced such imaginaries in their medical practice. This project supplements archival research with interviews involving current folk healers, in order to reflect on: 1) how they conceive of the body, disease, and healing today; 2) how they understand their own past and history. In doing so, this study aims to articulate the role of gender and race in the construction of medical expertise, and to elucidate how present-day concerns shape the knowledge that is produced about the past, and how the past resonates in the present.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.