Abstract
According to the Dutch colonizers in Suriname, leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) was highly contagious and transmitted from human-to-human. A “cordon sanitaire” was constructed around the patients, mainly African slaves and Asian indentured laborers and their descendants. They were tracked down and incarcerated in remote leprosy settlements located in the rainforest. Some patients obeyed the authorities while others resisted and rebelled. Their narratives, revealing conceptual entanglement of the disease with their culture and the Surinamese natural environment, contain important information for understanding their world and their life inside and outside of leprosy settlements. They combined traditional health practices and medicinal plants from their natural habitat with biomedical treatments (practicing medical pluralism). They believed in a diversity of disease explanations, predominantly the taboo concepts treef, tyina, and totem animals associated with their natural habitat (the Surinamese biome). Some of their imaginary explanations (e.g., “leprosy is carried and/or transmitted through soil and certain animals”) show a surprising analogy with recent findings from leprosy scientists. Our research shows that nature contributes to shaping the world of Hansen’s disease patients. An ecological approach can make a valuable contribution to understanding their world. Comparative historical and anthropological research needs to be conducted to map the influence of different biomes on local explanatory models. The now deserted Hansen’s disease settlements and their natural environments are interesting research sites and important places of cultural heritage.
Highlights
Philippe Fermin, a German-born physician who worked in Suriname from 1754 until 1762, identified the disease as originating from Africa, as identical to medieval leprosy, and as both highly infectious and incurable [40] (p. 127)
A Dutch physician who worked in Suriname in the second half of the 18th century, proposed a comprehensive, multi-factorial explanatory hypothesis: boasie was caused by a “poison” that one could contract through close contact with a leprosy sufferer, and, more through contact with wound exudate or through sexual intercourse with an African women suffering from the disease [41]
The findings suggest that armadillos living in those regions are infected with the bacterium that causes leprosy
Summary
Leprosy or Hansen’s disease is a chronic infectious disease of the skin and peripheral nerves, characterized by deformities and disabilities [1] and by severe stigmatization1 [2]. It is caused by Mycobacterium leprae [3] and by Mycobacterium lepromatosis [4], but the way this bacterium is transmitted is not well understood. It is spread from person-to-person via nasal droplets [5] and by skin-to-skin contact [6]. The idea that humans are the only reservoir of the disease appears problematic.
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