Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine brings together over fifty papers by leading contemporary historians from more than a dozen nations. It is the third in a series of books growing out of the tri-annual International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia, the largest and most prestigious gathering of scholars in the field. The current volume broadens the field's traditional focus on China to include path-breaking work on Vietnam, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, and even the transmission of Asian science and technology to Europe and the United States. Topics covered include: traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipino medicines; Chinese astronomy; Japanese earthquakes; science and technology policy; architecture; the digital revolution; and much else.

The contributors to this volume show how the practices of health in Southeast Asia over the past two centuries were mediated by local medical traditions, colonial interests, range of health agents and intermediaries.

Taste of Control tells what happened when American colonizers began to influence what Filipinos ate, how they cooked, and how they perceived their national cuisine. Drawing from a rich variety of sources including letters, advertisements, textbooks, menus, and cookbooks, it reveals how food culture served as a battleground over Filipino identity.

Natural Products and Drug Discovery: An Integrated Approach provides an applied overview of the field, from traditional medicinal targets, to cutting-edge molecular techniques. Natural products have always been of key importance to drug discovery, but as modern techniques and technologies have allowed researchers to identify, isolate, extract and synthesize their active compounds in new ways, they are once again coming to the forefront of drug discovery. Combining the potential of traditional medicine with the refinement of modern chemical technology, the use of natural products as the basis for drugs can help in the development of more environmentally sound, economical, and effective drug discovery processes. Natural Products & Drug Discovery: An Integrated Approach reflects on the current changes in this field, giving context to the current shift and using supportive case studies to highlight the challenges and successes faced by researchers in integrating traditional medicinal sources with modern chemical technologies. It therefore acts as a useful reference to medicinal chemists, phytochemists, biochemists, pharma R&D professionals, and drug discovery students and researchers. - Reviews the changing role of natural products in drug discovery, integrating traditional knowledge with modern molecular technologies - Highlights the potential future role of natural products in preventative medicine - Supported by real world case studies throughout

An overview and analysis of the role of English in the Philippines, the factors that led to its spread and retention, and the characteristics of Philippine English today.

A variety of cross-cultural collisions and collusions—sometimes amusing, sometimes tragic, but always complex—resulted from the U.S. Navy’s introduction of Western health and sanitation practices to Guam’s native population. In Colonial Dis-Ease, Anne Perez Hattori examines early twentieth-century U.S. military colonialism through the lens of Western medicine and its cultural impact on the Chamorro people. In four case studies, Hattori considers the histories of Chamorro leprosy patients exiled to Culion Leper Colony in the Philippines, hookworm programs for children, the regulation of native midwives and nurses, and the creation and operation of the Susana Hospital for women and children. Changes to Guam’s traditional systems of health and hygiene placed demands not only on Chamorro bodies, but also on their cultural values, social relationships, political controls, and economic expectations. Hattori effectively demonstrates that the new health projects signified more than a benevolent interest in hygiene and the philanthropic sharing of medical knowledge. Rather the navy’s health care regime in Guam was an important vehicle through which U.S. colonial power and moral authority over Chamorros was introduced and entrenched. Medical experts, navy doctors, and health care workers asserted their scientific knowledge as well as their administrative might and in the process became active participants in the colonization of Guam.

In a country as diverse as South Africa, sickness and health often mean different things to different people – so much so that the different health definitions and health belief models in the country seem to have a profound influence on the health-seeking behaviour of the people who are part of our vibrant, multicultural society. This book is concerned with the integration of indigenous health knowledge (IHK) into the current Western--orientated Primary Health Care (PHC) model. The first section of the book highlights the challenges facing the training of health professionals using a curriculum that is not drawing its knowledge base from the indigenous context and the people of that context. Such professionals will later recognise that they are walking without limbs in matters pertaining to health. The area that was chosen for conducting the research was KwaBomvana in Xhora (Elliotdale), Eastern Cape province, South Africa. The people who reside there are called AmaBomvana. The area where the Bomvana peoples reside is served by Madwaleni Hospital and eight surrounding clinics. Qualitative ethnographic, feminist methods of data collection supported the research done for Section 1 of the book. Section 2 comprises the translation and implementation of PhD study outcomes and had contributions from various researchers. In the critical research findings of the PhD study, older Xhosa women identify the inclusion of social determinants of health as vital to the health problems they managed within their homes. For them, each disease is linked to a social determinant of health, and the management of health problems includes the management of social determinants of health. For them, it is about the health of the home and not just about the management of disease. They believe that healthy homes make healthy villages, and that the prevention of the development of disease is related to the strengthening of the home. Health and illness should be seen within both physical and spiritual contexts; without health, there can be no progress in the home. When defining health, the older Xhosa women add three critical components to the WHO health definition, namely, food security, healthy children and families, and peace and security in their villages. Prof. Mji further proposes that these three elements should be included in the next revision of the WHO health definition because they are not only important for the Bomvana people where the research was conducted, but also for the rest of humanity. In light of the promise of National Health Insurance and the revitalisation of PHC, this book proposes that these two major national health policies should take cognisance of the IHK utilised by the older Xhosa women. In addtion to what this research implies, these policies should also take note of all IHK from the indigenous peoples of South Africa, Africa and the rest of the world, and that there should be a clear plan as to how the knowledge can be supported within a health care systems approach.

In western countries, including the United States, foreign-trained nurses constitute a crucial labor supply. Far and away the largest number of these nurses come from the Philippines. Why is it that a developing nation with a comparatively greater need for trained medical professionals sends so many of its nurses to work in wealthier countries? Catherine Ceniza Choy engages this question through an examination of the unique relationship between the professionalization of nursing and the twentieth-century migration of Filipinos to the United States. The first book-length study of the history of Filipino nurses in the United States, Empire of Care brings to the fore the complicated connections among nursing, American colonialism, and the racialization of Filipinos. Choy conducted extensive interviews with Filipino nurses in New York City and spoke with leading Filipino nurses across the United States. She combines their perspectives with various others—including those of Philippine and American government and health officials—to demonstrate how the desire of Filipino nurses to migrate abroad cannot be reduced to economic logic, but must instead be understood as a fundamentally transnational process. She argues that the origins of Filipino nurse migrations do not lie in the Philippines' independence in 1946 or the relaxation of U.S. immigration rules in 1965, but rather in the creation of an Americanized hospital training system during the period of early-twentieth-century colonial rule. Choy challenges celebratory narratives regarding professional migrants’ mobility by analyzing the scapegoating of Filipino nurses during difficult political times, the absence of professional solidarity between Filipino and American nurses, and the exploitation of foreign-trained nurses through temporary work visas. She shows how the culture of American imperialism persists today, continuing to shape the reception of Filipino nurses in the United States.