网络:一个有用的殖民医学史分析范畴

Network:A Useful Analytic Category for the History of Colonial Medicine

20世纪90年代以来,在历史学“全球转向”趋势的影响下,网络概念不仅拓宽了帝国史的研究视野,还被应用于帝国全球史视域下的殖民科学史研究,从而对中心—边缘或宗主国—殖民地的二元分析框架提出挑战。作为与帝国史和殖民科学史密切相关的研究领域,殖民医学史同样受益于网络路径。该路径具有以下研究特点:强调帝国网络的多中心特质;关注宗主国与殖民地的共生关系与双向互动;探讨医疗人员、理念、技术、政策等在同一帝国各殖民地间的流转;着眼不同帝国、国家或地区在医疗卫生方面的协调与竞合;将人与事物的流动及流通作为帝国网络的关键要素;突显殖民医学的地方性维度。网络路径的殖民医学史有助于将同质而单一的帝国医学图景复杂化,但也存在对网络定义模糊、泛化网络的流动性与关联性、遮蔽网络内部不平等权力关系、淡化殖民医学霸权色彩以及忽视本土特性和土著声音等局限。近年来勃兴的全球微观史融通历史分析的宏观与微观尺度,从具体行动者之间互动交流的角度发现跨文化背景下地方情境的独特性,能够为弥补上述不足提供行之有效的思路与方法。

Since the 1990s,under the influence of the“global turn”in historiography,the concept of network has not only broadened the horizon of imperial history,but has also been applied to the research of the history of colonial science in the context of imperial global history,thuschallenging the dual analytical frameworks of center-periphery or metropolis-colony.As a research field closely related to imperial history and the history of colonial science,the history of colonial medicine also benefits from the network approach.This approach has the following characteristics:it emphasizes the polycentric nature of imperial networks;it focuses on the symbiotic and two-way interactions between metropolises and colonies;it explores the flow of medical personnel,ideas,technologies,and policies across colonies within the same empire;it pays attention to the coordination,competition and collaboration among different empires,nations or localitiesin medical treatment and public health;it takes the mobility and circulation of people and things as key elements of imperial networks;and it highlights the local dimensions of colonial medicine.While the history of colonial medicine based on the network approach helps to complicate the homogenous and single landscape of imperial medicine,it also has a few shortcomings,including a vague definition of the network,a generalization of its mobility and connectedness,an obscuring of the unequal power relations within the network,a downplaying of the hegemony of colonial medicine,as well as a neglect of local identities and indigenous voices.The recent rise of global microhistory,which integrates the macro and micro scales of historical analysis and finds the uniqueness of local contexts under cross-cultural contexts from the perspective of the interactions and communication among specific actors,makes it possible to provide effective ideas and methods to remedy the above shortcomings.