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

博士论文研究：民间医学史上的性别和种族

• 批准号: 2043599
• 负责人: James Delbourgo
• 金额: $ 1.58万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2043599&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Gender; Race

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 Progress narratives that have presented them as superseded or ousted by the professional doctor are always created retrospectively by historians and fall into the trap of teleology.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.

在过去的几十年中，世界许多地区都见证了助产士和其他传统康复实践的复兴。即使在据称占据生物医学的地点，也对医疗替代品的兴趣越来越大。这种现代现象挑战了传统医学历史的目的论框架，这些框架长期以来一直对解释生物医学的出现，医学的专业化以及社会的医疗化以及对民间医学史进行更长的研究。遵循较长的学术传统，质疑科学或医学现代性的单线性叙事，该项目认为，民间治疗师是并且仍然是必不可少的医疗提供者。历史学家总是回顾性地创造了被专业医生所取代或罢免的进步叙事，并陷入了目的论的陷阱。该项目建立了过去和现在之间的对话，以调查当今的关注如何塑造有关民间医学史产生的知识，相反，过去如何在其当前从业者的生活中产生共鸣。这项纵向研究重建了无执照的助产士，治疗师和外科医生的生活，这些人在少数或没有医生的城镇和村庄的生物医学兴起之前提供了大部分医疗服务。三个主要问题推动了这项研究：首先，在生物医学兴起之前，谁在区域内提供了狮子的医疗服务，而到目前为止，涉及的主要医疗实践是什么？其次，种族和性别如何塑造民间治疗师的医疗干预措施？第三，当代科学现代性的叙事如何为理解民间医学史的方式提供信息？该项目的重点是助产士，治疗师和外科医生作为刑事审判，民事审判以及他们参与市政委员会的医学专家的作用，他们为他们向城镇居民提供了医疗认证的所有情况。该项目借鉴了多个档案中收集的定性数据，分析了各种各样的参与者（患者，法官，律师和证人）如何根据性别和种族意识形态来维持正确/不当行为的想法，以及医学从业者如何在其医疗实践中挑战或复制此类想象。该项目通过涉及当前民间治疗师的访谈来补充档案研究，以反思：1）他们今天如何想象身体，疾病和治疗； 2）他们如何理解自己的过去和历史。为此，这项研究旨在阐明性别和种族在建设医学专业知识中的作用，并阐明当今的关注如何影响对过去产生的知识，以及过去如何在当前产生共鸣。这一奖项反映了NSF的法规使命，并认为通过基金会的知识优点和广泛的crietia criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criter criteria criter critia criter criteria criteria criter criteria criteria均值得一提。