Colonizing bodies

About this book

"Mary-Ellen Kelm's Colonizing Bodies which examines the impact of colonization on Aboriginal health in British Columbia during the first half of the twentieth century. Using postmodern and postcolonial conceptions of the body and the power relations of colonization, Kelm shows how a pluralistic medical system evolved. She begins by exploring the ways in which Aboriginal bodies were materially affected by Canadian Indian policy, which placed restrictions on fishing and hunting, allocated inadequate reserves, forced children into unhealthy residential schools, and criminalized indigenous healing. She goes on to consider how humanitarianism and colonial medicine were used to pathologize Aboriginal bodies and institute a regime of doctors, hospitals, and field matrons, all working to encourage assimilation. Finally, Kelm reveals how Aboriginal people were able to resist and alter these forces in order to preserve their own cultural understanding of their bodies, disease, and medicine." "Kelm's cross-disciplinary approach results in an important and accessible book that will be of interest not only to academic historians and medical anthropologists but also to those concerned with Aboriginal health and healing today."--BOOK JACKET.