Description
Book SynopsisThis riveting account of medical detective work traces the story of kuru, a fatal brain disease, and the pioneering scientists who spent decades searching for its cause and cure. Winner, William H. Welch Medal, American Association for the History of MedicineWinner, Ludwik Fleck Prize, Society for Social Studies of ScienceWinner, General History Award, New South Wales Premier's History AwardsWhen whites first encountered the Fore people in the isolated highlands of colonial New Guinea during the 1940s and 1950s, they found a people in the grip of a bizarre epidemic. Women and children succumbed to muscle weakness, uncontrollable tremors, and lack of coordination, until death inevitably supervened. Facing extinction, the Fore attributed their unique and terrifying affliction to a particularly malign form of sorcery. In The Collectors of Lost Souls, Warwick Anderson tells the story of the resilience of the Fore through this devastating plague, their transformation into modern people,
Table of ContentsPreface to the Updated Edition
Introduction. The Disease Europeans Catch from Kuru
Chapter 1. Stranger Relations
Chapter 2. Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Man
Chapter 3. A Contemptuous Tenderness
Chapter 4. The Scientist and His Magic
Chapter 5. Hearts of Darkness
Chapter 6. Specimen Days
Chapter 7. We Were Their People
Chapter 8. Stumbling along the Tortuous Road
Conclusion. Dénouement Was a Bit Difficult
Afterword
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
