"Medicine - Magic - Religion"
SSHM Annual Conference, Southampton, 17 - 18 July 2000
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This conference aims at a re-assessment of the boundaries and
intersections between medicine, magic and religion in the light of
* the current upsurge of scholarly interest in the area of pre-modern
history of medicine
* conceptual debates on the epistemological status of science and
medicine vis-a-vis magic and religion
* recent writing on 'colonial medicine' and on the
inter-relationships, hegemonic tendencies and conceptual
incompatibilities of different cosmologies and systems of healing
* recent contributions by post-colonial and subaltern histories to the
critique of dichotomous categories such as 'East' versus
'West', 'rationality' versus 'irrationality', 'science' versus
'belief'
* the rise of 'alternative' medicine in western countries and its
construction as a 'holistic' and more 'spiritual' alternative to
'scientifically' based bio-medicine.
It is intended to bring together historians and social scientists
working on the development of medical theories and practices during
different periods of time and within diverse cultural contexts. Offers
of papers based on interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives are
particularly welcome.
If you would like to present a paper at the conference, please send an
abstract (pasted into an e- mail) to [log in to unmask] by 31 January
2000.
Contact for registration details: Dr Waltraud Ernst, Department of
History, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ. E-mail:
[log in to unmask] Bookings should arrive no later than 1 April 2000. You
are advised to register in time as the conference venue can only
accommodate a maximum of 90 participants.
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