Hi everyone - sorry this is extremely late, but I just can never remember this thing!
I was interested in the use of hygiene as a way of marking difference in race between white and Filipino people during early 20th century seemed to me to have some parallels to the first contact between the Spanish and native people in the 16th century. An article by Rebecca Earle, entitled "If You Eat Their Food...:" Diets and Bodies in Early Colonial Spanish America," deals with a similar issue, where Spanish colonialists feared that they would 'become' native - get darker skin, coarser hair, different behavior - if they ate the same food as the native people. This same concern is reflected in Colonial Pathologies, through food, but also early on through the environment, then through the 'dirtiness' of the peoples themselves. It is interesting to see that the same fears existed over hundreds of years: white people were healthy, from healthful climates, with healthy habits; whereas 'others' were sick, from dangerous climes, with non-hygenic habits.
Have to run - time for class! :)
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