Public Health and Colonialism

The exploitation of black people and appropriation of human rights by reason of public health boasts bold imperialistic and colonial ideology. During the colonization of the Philippines, the US used the lack of hygiene of the Filipino people as an excuse to assert control over the population under the guise of civilizing the population, in the process of furthering their own political goals. The practice of public defecation was touted as the reason for Americans to take control of public health in the Philippines. Filipinos were treated as lesser humans, allowing Americans a self-imposed power granted on account of their comparative civility.

Rather than helping improve their infrastructure and education, Americans used intrusive methods in studying the feces of the Filipino people, an act that was deeply offensive and dehumanizing. In Excremental Colonialism, Warwick Anderson states that “the work meant invasion of the accepted rights of the home and of the individual on a scale perhaps unprecedented for any community” (Anderson 108). This description shows how the colonizers were able to entrench a power dynamic and hierarchy by degrading the people’s sense of personhood and treating them like specimens rather than individuals with equal rights and agency as themselves.

It is well known that Thomas Jefferson used this reasoning to justify the separation of whites and blacks and the discrimination between the two groups. Not only was this racist ideology, but it was also hidden under a veil of scientific reasoning that made his argument present as logical. Using the pretext of the ‘scientific’ differences he noted between races as a natural historian, he argued that it was logical for black people to be treated differently and as an inferior race. As the governor of Virginia during an era of slavery, it makes sense that Jefferson would use this logic in order to propagate the idea that white people had the right to control the slaves. It draws parallels to the present case because, ultimately, consent is a medium through which people express control over their own bodies. By stripping people of this right, western scientists are wielding control over the African population.

Comments

Origin of Neurology

As I consider majoring in neurobiology (the study of the biological mechanisms that control the nervous system) in college, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the origins of neuroscience. For hundreds of years from the ancient Egyptians to the Greeks, humans believed that the seat of intellect was the heart (which is why the ancient Egyptians went to great lengths to preserve the heart after death but discarded the brain!) The birth of neurology began 2500 years ago with Hippocrates who pondered over the purpose and functioning of the brain, reasoning that the brain must be the organ controlling sensation simply because most sensory organs - eyes, ears, and tongue -- are located close to the brain. This was starkly different from other opinions of the time which held that the heart was the main organ that controlled everything in humans. The brain was simply thought to be a "radiator" for pumping the heart and keeping it cool. Later, Hippocrates expanded ...

Galen

Even though Cajal is considered the father of neuroscience, his contribution came centuries after the first insights into the nervous system. As I wrote in my earlier posts, ancient doctors pondered over the nervous system, trying to understand what controlled the mind and body. Of these doctors, one that stands out is Galen, whose contribution to the understanding of the nervous system was fundamental to neuroscience. Through anatomical experiments, Galen was the first to observe and teach the functioning of nerves in the body. For these experiments, which he wasn’t shy about demonstrating to the public, Galen is regarded as the founder of experimental physiology. Galen is considered one of the most prominent and influential doctors in history, second only to Hippocrates. Galen was a staunch follower of Hippocrates and helped spread his teachings from Greece to the vast Roman Empire. Claudius Galenus, commonly know as Galen, was born in 129 AD in Pergamum in modern-day Turkey to a...

The Nervous System

Just as the purpose of the brain and the heart confused ancient scientists, so did the nervous system. Nerves had been identified fairly early but they proved difficult to categorize. Some thought it was similar to arteries and formed some sort of connective system for tissues. In fact, the word nerve is Greek for tendon or sinew, suggesting that it was thought to be some sort of physical connection. Despite the confusion about its exact mechanism, ancient medical practitioners seemed to understand its function. Nerves were attributed to both movement and sensation correctly, even though there were opposing views on what controlled these functions. Aristotle argued that nerves originated and were controlled by the heart, while others argued nerves were controlled by the brain. Centuries later, Galen proved that nerves emanated from the brain, scoffing at those “who know nothing of what is to be seen in dissection." Galen was the first to conclude that the spinal cord was an ...

History of Medicine

Search This Blog