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Podcast: New Books in Medicine
Episode: John Richens, "Tik Merauke: An Epidemic Like No Other" (Melbourne UP, 2022)
Description: A medical doctor with an inquisitive mind and a traveling spirit, John Richens thought he had hit upon an exemplary public health case study – the story of donovanosis among the Marind people of early-twentieth-century New Guinea. The rare, sexually transmitted disease, locally known as “tik Merauke,” rose to epidemic level after the ruling Dutch moved to quash the Marind practice of headhunting. The intensive treatment campaign that followed was successful, at least insofar as curing the infection.However, medical outcomes are only one aspect of the complex history of the Marind’s encounter with imperial power, as Richens...