{"id":1737,"date":"2018-12-14T14:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T13:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/?p=1737"},"modified":"2020-08-05T13:49:19","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T12:49:19","slug":"pharmaceuticals-and-modern-statecraft-in-south-africa-the-cases-of-opium-thalidomide-and-contraception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/12\/14\/pharmaceuticals-and-modern-statecraft-in-south-africa-the-cases-of-opium-thalidomide-and-contraception\/","title":{"rendered":"Pharmaceuticals and Modern Statecraft in South Africa: The Cases of Opium Thalidomide and Contraception"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>by Julie Parle, Rebecca Hodes and Thembisa Waetjen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In this audio clip, Thembisa Waetjen and Rebecca Hodes discuss their article, co-authored with Julie Parle, which explores a century of pharmaceutical politics through a close historical account of three medicaments. In African contexts, historical research necessarily engages with experiences of colonisation\/decolonisation, which have shaped local and global relations of power, culture, knowledge, and the body, as well as ideas about health, healing and harm. One of those histories has been remarkably under-researched: the use of pharmaceuticals. Parle, Hodes, and Waetjen use their own distinct but overlapping projects to demonstrate the value of historical investigation for developing what they term \u2018Pharmaceutical Modernities\u2019 within the broader Medical Humanities. They reflect on the importance of historical methods for understanding diverse practices of medicines regulation and adaptation among consumers, providers, state authorities, <a href=\"https:\/\/finishingservices.com.au\/\">contract packaging service<\/a> and drug manufacturers. Waetjen traces the origins and changing nature of opiate consumption, regulation and addiction in the early twentieth century; Parle charts the \u2018three phases\u2019 of the teratogen thalidomide in southern Africa; and Hodes considers medicalised contraception and pharmaceutical, racial and gendered agendas in the post-colony. Chemical medicines offer a crucial focus for considering the changing landscape of vitality, consumption, modernity, and biopower. As argued here, we must have greater exchange between those who develop and deploy pharmaceuticals and humanities scholars who seek to understand their impacts across time. The authors invite readers to approach their paper as a starting point for further research about the pharmaceutical humanities in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>To hear Thembisa Waetjen and Rebecca Hodes discuss this article, please follow this link to Soundcloud: <a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-649800030\/thembisa-waetjen-rebecca-hodes-discuss-an-article-written-with-julie-parle\">https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/user-649800030\/thembisa-waetjen-rebecca-hodes-discuss-an-article-written-with-julie-parle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Read the full article on the <em>Medical Humanities<\/em> Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/mh.bmj.com\/content\/44\/4\/253\">website<\/a>.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Julie Parle, Rebecca Hodes and Thembisa Waetjen In this audio clip, Thembisa Waetjen and Rebecca Hodes discuss their article, co-authored with Julie Parle, which explores a century of pharmaceutical politics through a close historical account of three medicaments. In African contexts, historical research necessarily engages with experiences of colonisation\/decolonisation, which have shaped local and [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/12\/14\/pharmaceuticals-and-modern-statecraft-in-south-africa-the-cases-of-opium-thalidomide-and-contraception\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14911,15028,15047],"tags":[15048,15051,15052,15059,15039,15044,15049],"class_list":["post-1737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-global-humanities","category-journal-announcements","category-special-issues","tag-africa","tag-global-health","tag-health-humanities","tag-medhums","tag-medical-humanities","tag-research","tag-south-africa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pharmaceuticals and Modern Statecraft in South Africa: The Cases of Opium Thalidomide and Contraception - Medical Humanities<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-humanities\/2018\/12\/14\/pharmaceuticals-and-modern-statecraft-in-south-africa-the-cases-of-opium-thalidomide-and-contraception\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pharmaceuticals and Modern Statecraft in South Africa: The Cases of Opium Thalidomide and Contraception - Medical Humanities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Julie Parle, Rebecca Hodes and Thembisa Waetjen In this audio clip, Thembisa Waetjen and Rebecca Hodes discuss their article, co-authored with Julie Parle, which explores a century of pharmaceutical politics through a close historical account of three medicaments. 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