"Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974
In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and "jungle." In the process, interwar researcher...
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
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2023
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169961 |
| _version_ | 1826114885487951872 |
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| author | Greatrex, Jack Edward |
| author2 | School of Humanities |
| author_facet | School of Humanities Greatrex, Jack Edward |
| author_sort | Greatrex, Jack Edward |
| collection | NTU |
| description | In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and "jungle." In the process, interwar researchers bridged a novel scientific vocabulary centering on disease "reservoirs" with older suspicions of plantations enabling "pests," as well as with a later, explicitly ecological understanding of infectious disease. In exploring this history I thereby help to re-historicize the emergence of ecological notions of disease reservoirs, whilst also pushing at the limit-points of influential notions of "tropicality." |
| first_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:46:31Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | ntu-10356/169961 |
| institution | Nanyang Technological University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-10-01T03:46:31Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ntu-10356/1699612023-08-16T05:28:56Z "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 Greatrex, Jack Edward School of Humanities Humanities::History Malaya Disease Reservoirs In this article, I examine epidemiological research into scrub typhus in British Malaya between 1924 and 1974. Interwar research, I show, explained the incidence of the disease through conjunctions of rats, mites, plantations, lalang grass, and "jungle." In the process, interwar researchers bridged a novel scientific vocabulary centering on disease "reservoirs" with older suspicions of plantations enabling "pests," as well as with a later, explicitly ecological understanding of infectious disease. In exploring this history I thereby help to re-historicize the emergence of ecological notions of disease reservoirs, whilst also pushing at the limit-points of influential notions of "tropicality." Nanyang Technological University Research for this work was undertaken whilst I was a GRC-funded PhD candidate at the University of Hong Kong and completed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Nanyang Technological University. 2023-08-16T05:28:56Z 2023-08-16T05:28:56Z 2023 Journal Article Greatrex, J. E. (2023). "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974. Medical Anthropology, 42(4), 340-353. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01459740.2023.2185887 0145-9740 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169961 10.1080/01459740.2023.2185887 37022723 2-s2.0-85152434202 4 42 340 353 en Medical anthropology © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved. |
| spellingShingle | Humanities::History Malaya Disease Reservoirs Greatrex, Jack Edward "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title | "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title_full | "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title_fullStr | "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title_full_unstemmed | "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title_short | "Back to the Jungle": investigating rats, grass, scrub typhus, and plantations in Malaya, 1924 - 1974 |
| title_sort | back to the jungle investigating rats grass scrub typhus and plantations in malaya 1924 1974 |
| topic | Humanities::History Malaya Disease Reservoirs |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10356/169961 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT greatrexjackedward backtothejungleinvestigatingratsgrassscrubtyphusandplantationsinmalaya19241974 |