Mixed Medicines

“Mixed Medicines is just the sort of book that the field of colonial medicine has been clamoring for. It offers much more than a study of the imposition of French colonial medicine on the Khmer people of Cambodia; it shows us why people ‘mix’ health care practices in ways that make sense to them but baffle others. This brilliant book will inform scholars and policymakers alike.”

“Mixed Medicines is the first book ever written by a historian entirely focusing on medicine in colonial Cambodia. The exhaustive analysis of the archives in both France and Cambodia provides a unique insight into the various medical practices undertaken by the French protectorate. Sokhieng Au’s theoretical position moves beyond traditional academic research on colonialism by showing what is really colonial about public health policies enacted by those in power, as well as by drawing attention to the cultural and political processes, which were not always colonial, that separated individual freedom from coercion.”

“Skillfully crafted and strongly argued, Mixed Medicines intervenes forcefully in multiple fields of scholarship. It provides a strikingly original and exhaustively researched history of the social, cultural, and institutional history of medicine in colonial Cambodia and offers a learned critique of conventional academic theories of globalization and cultural change. Southeast Asianists, medical anthropologists, and historians of science will find copious food for thought in this rich and elegant book.”

“A fascinating account of two very different cultures and their often clashing approaches to medicine and health care. Au provides insights into the social and cultural history of Cambodia and Southeast Asia that no previous book has offered us before.”