摘要
热带病是近代英帝国向热带地区扩张面临的主要自然障碍之一。19世纪,由于西非地区白人殖民者的极高疾病死亡率,该地也被英国人冠以“白人坟墓”的称谓。起初,英国医学界奉行一种“适应病”理论来应对上述问题。然而,通过一系列的医学研究和医疗实践,英国医学界逐渐认为白人在体质上无法适应“不健康”的西非热带环境,而西非黑人则对热带环境具有某种“种族免疫力”,他们不易患上那些对白人而言十分致命的热带病。在一定程度上,这种医学认识从殖民观念和殖民策略等层面影响了英帝国在西非的扩张,促使英国殖民者由以白人为主导的直接殖民模式,逐步转向依靠“土著代理人”的间接殖民模式,并塑造了最终形成的英属西非殖民地的种族结构和权力关系。此外,这种医学认识也将西非黑人对某些疾病的免疫力视为其生理和精神“缺陷”的副产品。这同样是一种对黑人身心特质的歧视性构建,是一种为英帝国扩张树立“合法性”的“权力叙事”。
Tropical diseases were one of the main natural obstacles to the expansion of the British Empire to the tropics.In the 19th century,West Africa was dubbed the“white man’s grave”due to the extremely high mortality rate among the white colonists.Initially,the British medical community pursued a theory of“seasoning sickness”to deal with the above problems.However,through a series of medical researches,the British medical community gradually believed that whites were physically unable to adapt to the“unhealthy”tropical environment,while West Africans had“racial immunity”to the tropical environment,and they were less likely to suffer from tropical diseases that were fatal to whites.To a certain extent,this medical understanding influenced the expansion of the British Empire in West Africa from the perspective of colonial concept and strategy,prompted the Britain to gradually shift from the direct colonial model to the indirect one relying on“native agency”,and shaped the racial structures and power relations of the British West Africa.In addition,such medical understanding also regarded the immunity of West Africans to certain diseases as a by-product of their physical and mental“deficiencies”,which was also a discriminatory construction of the physical and mental characteristics of West Africans,and a“power narrative”that shaped the“legitimacy”of the British Empire.
出处
《上海师范大学学报（哲学社会科学版）》
北大核心
2024年第2期129-140,共12页
Journal of Shanghai Normal University(Philosophy & Social Sciences Edition)
基金
教育部人文社会科学研究项目“殖民医学与英帝国在西非的权力建构研究(1792—1855)”(23YJC770032)。
关键词
英帝国
种族医学
西非黑人
种族免疫力
殖民扩张
British Empire
race-medicine
West Africans
racial immunity
colonial expansion
