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

在过去几十年中，世界许多地方见证了助产和其他传统治疗方法的复兴。即使在城市，生物医学据称已经站稳脚跟的地方，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，传统医学史长期以来一直对解释生物医学的出现、医学的专业化以及相关的社会医学化感兴趣，并要求对民间医学的历史进行更长时间的研究。遵循质疑科学或医学现代性的单线叙述的学术传统，该项目认为民间治疗师是，并且仍然是，基本的医疗提供者。那些将他们描述为被专业医生所取代或驱逐的进步叙事总是由历史学家回顾性地创造出来，并落入目的论的陷阱。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关于民间医学历史的知识，以及相反，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证助产士、治疗师和外科医生的生活，在生物医学兴起之前，这些人在城镇和村庄提供了大量的医疗服务，那里很少或根本没有医生。三个主要问题驱动这项研究：第一，在生物医学兴起之前，谁提供了最大份额的区域医疗保健，以及迄今为止逃避历史分析的关键医疗实践是什么？其次，种族和性别如何塑造民间治疗师的医疗干预？第三，科学现代性的当代叙事如何告知理解民间医学历史的方式？该项目的重点是助产士、治疗师和外科医生在刑事审判、民事审判中作为医学专家的作用，以及他们参与市议会的工作，在所有这些情况下，他们向市民提供医疗证明。利用在多个档案中收集的定性数据，该项目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正确/不当行为的想法，以及医疗从业者如何在他们的医疗实践中挑战或复制这些行为。该项目通过对当前民间治疗师的采访来补充档案研究，以反思：1）他们如何看待今天的身体，疾病和治疗; 2）他们如何理解自己的过去和历史。在此过程中，本研究旨在阐明性别和种族在医学专业知识建设中的作用，并阐明当今的关注如何塑造关于过去的知识，以及过去如何在现在产生共鸣。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

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 Progress narratives that have presented them as superseded or ousted by the professional doctor are always created retrospectively by historians and fall into the trap of teleology.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