Excellent Article on American Colonialism and Chamorro Women in Medicine

Below is an excerpt of an article from History Cooperative by Anne Perez Hattori. To read more, visit: http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/hah/8.1/hattori.html

"Histories note the conspicuous role of women as healers, particularly in the production of herbal medicines and the field of midwifery. One French account from the 1800s, in fact, claims that the production of medicines was 'the province of women.' American anthropologist Laura Thompson, in her 1940 publication Guam and its People, contributes to this analysis, indicating that in the capital village of Hagåtña the suruhana consisted 'mainly of women over fifty.' Yet pre- and early-colonial historical sources are thus far silent on what might actually be the single largest collective body of Chamorro women in the health profession—the midwives or pattera. Recently scholars such as Karen Cruz and Christine de Lisle, however, have begun the task of documenting their twentieth-century history."

Hattori, Anne Perez, 'The Cry of the Little People of Guam': American Colonialism, Medical Philanthropy, and the Susana Hospital for Chamorro Women, 1898-1941. Health and History 8.1 (2006): 41 pars. 28 May 2008 .