Healing bodies, saving souls : medical missions in Asia and Africa / / edited by David Hardiman.

• Superior document: The Wellcome series in the history of medicine
• TeilnehmendeR: Hardiman, David.
• Year of Publication: 2006
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Wellcome series in the history of medicine.; Clio medica (Amsterdam, Netherlands) ; 80.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (355 pages) :; illustrations
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

Missionary medicine flourished during the period of high European imperialism, from the late-1800's to the 1960's. Although the figure of mission doctor – exemplified by David Livingstone and Albert Schweitzer – exercised a powerful influence on the Western imagination during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, few historians have examined the history of this important aspect of the missionary movement. This collection of articles on Asia and Africa uses the extensive archives that exist on medical missions to both enrich and challenge existing histories of the clinic in colonial territories – whether of the dispensary, the hospital, the maternity home or leprosy asylum. Some of the major themes addressed within include the attitude of different Christian denominations towards medical mission work, their differing theories and practices, how the missionaries were drawn into contentious local politics, and their attitude towards supernatural cures. Leprosy, often a feature of such work, is explored, as well as the ways in which local people perceived disease, healing and the missionaries themselves. Also discussed is the important contribution of women towards mission medical work. Healing Bodies, Saving Souls will be of interest not only to students and historians but also the wider reader as it aims to define the place of missionary within the overall history of medicine.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / David Hardiman -- List of Illustrations / David Hardiman -- Acknowledgements / David Hardiman -- Introduction / David Hardiman -- Seeking Souls through the Eyes of the Blind: The Birth of the Medical Missionary Society in Nineteenth-Century China / Michael C. Lazich -- Local Voluntarism: The Medical Mission of the London Missionary Society in Hong Kong, 1842–1923 / Timothy Man-kong Wong -- Professionalising the Rural Medical Mission in Weixian, 1890–1925 / John R. Stanley -- Christian Therapy: Medical Missionaries and the Adivasis of Western India, 1880–1930 / David Hardiman -- Colonialism, Cannabis and the Christians: Mission Medical Knowledge and the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission of 1893–4 / James H. Mills -- African Medical Personnel of the Universities’ Mission to Central Africa in Northern Rhodesia / Linda Beer Kumwenda -- ‘A Matter of Vital Importance’: The Place of the Medical Mission in Maternal and Child Healthcare in Tanganyika, 1919–39 / Michael Jennings -- Curing Bodies to Rescue Souls: Health in Capuchin’s Missionary Strategy in Eritrea, 1894–1935 / Uoldelul Chelati Dirar -- The Social Dimensions of Christian Leprosy Work among Muslims: American Missionaries and Young Patients in Colonial Northern Nigeria, 1920–40 / Shobana Shankar -- Administering Leprosy Control in Ogoja Province, Nigeria, 1945–67: A Case Study in Government–Mission Relations / John Manton -- Notes on Contributors / David Hardiman -- Index / David Hardiman.