Research Catalog
Uncertainty, anxiety, frugality : dealing with leprosy in the Dutch East Indies, 1816-1942
- Title
- Uncertainty, anxiety, frugality : dealing with leprosy in the Dutch East Indies, 1816-1942 / Leo van Bergen.
- Author
- Bergen, Leo van
- Publication
- Singapore : NUS Press, [2018]
- ©2018
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Not available - Please for assistance. | Text | Use in library | RC154.7.I7 B47 2018 | Off-site |
Details
- Additional Authors
- NUS Press, publisher.
- Description
- x, 291 pages; 23 cm.
- Summary
- The story of leprosy in the Dutch East Indies from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th 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. In the early 19th century, the Dutch administrationsimply removed sufferers from public view: campaigns targetted anyone "looking ugly". Towards the end of the century, 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 20th century, a growing understanding that leprosy was spread by a bacillus caused a panic that leprosy 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--Provided by publisher.
- Series Statement
- History of medicine in Southeast Asia
- Uniform Title
- History of medicine in Southeast Asia series
- Alternative Title
- Dealing with leprosy in the Dutch East Indies, 1816-1942
- Subject
- Leprosy > Indonesia > History
- Leprosy > Social aspects > History. > Indonesia
- Medical policy > Indonesia > History
- Leprosy > history
- Leprosy > psychology
- Health Policy > history
- History, 19th Century
- History, 20th Century
- Socioeconomic Factors > history
- Leprosy
- Leprosy > Social aspects
- Medical policy
- Netherlandish colonies
- Gesundheitspolitik
- Lepra
- Netherlands > Indonesia > Colonies > History
- Indonesia
- Indonesia
- Indonesien
- Niederländisch-Indien
- Genre/Form
- History.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 246-285) and index.
- Language (note)
- Translated from the Dutch.
- Contents
- 1. Trade and the Dutch East India Company -- 2. The period of the cultivation system -- 3. The rise of private initiative -- 4. Ethical politics and political frugality -- 5. Proselytizing and labour management in the new leprosy colonies -- 6. Care of the sick by the Society for Combatting Leprosy in the Dutch Indies -- 7. Indonesian nationalism and economic crisis.
- ISBN
- 9789814722834
- 9814722839
- LCCN
- 2018333670
- OCLC
- on1012822627
- 1012822627
- SCSB-9196018
- Owning Institutions
- Princeton University Library