Disease in the History of Modern Latin America

From Malaria to AIDS

Diego Armus

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780822330691, 9780822330578
• eBook ISBN: 9780822384342
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Latin American & Caribbean History

Challenging traditional approaches to medical history, Disease in the History of Modern Latin America advances understandings of disease as a social and cultural construction in Latin America. This innovative collection provides a vivid look at the latest research in the cultural history of medicine through insightful essays about how disease—whether it be cholera or aids, leprosy or mental illness—was experienced and managed in different Latin American countries and regions, at different times from the late nineteenth century to the present.

Based on the idea that the meanings of sickness—and health—are contestable and subject to controversy, Disease in the History of Modern Latin America displays the richness of an interdisciplinary approach to social and cultural history. Examining diseases in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia, the contributors explore the production of scientific knowledge, literary metaphors for illness, domestic public health efforts, and initiatives shaped by the agendas of international agencies. They also analyze the connections between ideas of sexuality, disease, nation, and modernity; the instrumental role of certain illnesses in state-building processes; welfare efforts sponsored by the state and led by the medical professions; and the boundaries between individual and state responsibilities regarding sickness and health. Diego Armus's introduction contextualizes the essays within the history of medicine, the history of public health, and the sociocultural history of disease.

Contributors. Diego Armus, Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Kathleen Elaine Bliss, Ann S. Blum, Marilia Coutinho, Marcus Cueto, Patrick Larvie, Gabriela Nouzeilles, Diana Obregón, Nancy Lays Stepan, Ann Zulawski

Table of contents

• Contents
• Preface
• Disease in the Historiography of Modern Latin America. Diego Armus
• "The Only Serious Terror in These Regions": Malaria Control in the Brazilian Amazon Nancy Leys Stepan
• An Imaginary Plague in Turn-of-the-Century Buenos Aires: Hysteria, Discipline, and Languages of the Body. Gabriela Nouzeilles
• Tropical Medicine in Brazil: The Case of Chagas’ Disease. Marilia Coutinho
• Tango, Gender, and Tuberculosis in Buenos Aires, 1900–1940. Diego Armus
• The State, Physicians, and Leprosy in Modern Colombia. Diana Obregón
• Revolution, the Scatological Way: The Rockefeller Foundation’s Hookworm Campaign in 1920s Mexico. Anne-Emanuelle Birn
• Between Risk and Confession: State and Popular Perspectives of Syphilis Infection in Revolutionary Mexico. Katherine Elaine Bliss
• Dying of Sadness: Hospitalism and Child Welfare in Mexico City, 1920–1940. Ann S. Blum
• Mental Illness and Democracy in Bolivia: The Manicomio Pacheco, 1935–1950. Ann Zulawski
• Stigma and Blame during an Epidemic: Cholera in Peru, 1991. Marcos Cueto
• Nation, Science, and Sex: AIDS and the New Brazilian Sexuality. Patrick Larvie
• Contributors
• Index