02014nas a2200349   4500000000100000008004100001260000900042653001000051653001400061653000900075653001000084653001800094653002200112653001800134653004200152653001800194653002600212653001100238653001200249653002700261653001400288653002700302653001700329653002000346653002600366100001300392245011200405300001000517490000700527520111600534022001401650       2001                            d  c200110aAdult10aAustralia10aBias10aChild10aChild Welfare10aDisease Outbreaks10aEthnic Groups10aHealth Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice10aHealth Status10aHistory, 20th Century10aHumans10aleprosy10aOceanic Ancestry Group10aPrejudice10aPublic Health Practice10aRisk Factors10aSocial Medicine10aSocioeconomic Factors1 aBrough M00aHealthy imaginations: a social history of the epidemiology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.  a65-900 v203 a<p>It is difficult to imagine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health without the powerful descriptors of epidemiology. The statistical imagery of numerical tables, pie charts, and bar graphs have become a key element in the public presentation of Indigenous public health issues. Such quantitative measurements of health draw on the authority of neutral, objective science and are thus rarely questioned in terms of their social meaning. This paper traces the history of this imagery through the 20th century, providing a social account of epidemiological description. Historical notions such as social Darwinism, assimilation, and dangerous other are all seen to be woven into the epidemiological text. The enormous rise in the epidemiological description of Indigenous health problems in recent years needs to be analyzed as a social phenomenon and, in particular, as an aspect of emerging forms of governmentality. Finally, it is argued that such analyses are needed in order to promote an anthropology of epidemiology and to avoid limiting medical anthropology to applications within epidemiology.</p>  a0145-9740