Lecture One: Introduction

Pre-Conquest (or Pre-Invasion, Pre-Infection, Pre-Pestilence) Medicine

1. 13,000 ybp American habitation
2. Hunter gatherers and pastoralists: zoonoses, animal parasites, violence, accidents, famines, exposure
3. Sedentary groups: Infectious reservoirs, sanitation problems, crowdedness
4. Typical diseases: Dysentery, upper respiratory diseases, tuberculosis [No malaria, yellow fever, measles, smallpox]
5. Yet, especially in sedentary settings, low lifespans: among adults, under 35

Conquest and Virgin Soil Epidemics

1. The usual picture:
   • Unsettled America, the great wilderness
   • Conquest by military, technical, cultural superiority
2. Not empty, emptying decimation
   • Hispaniola population: 60,000-1 million (in 1492) down to 10-18,000 (in 1517) from flu, animals of the portmanteau, biota (see Crosby)

Variable Responses to Virgin Soil Epidemics

1. Smallpox, then measles and childhood diseases, later yellow fever
2. Strongest in the Southwest, Spanish deadly settlement
3. New England epidemics of 1616, 1619 had 70-90% mortality; New York, 1633-1650 had 87% mortality
4. Views of conquerers and conquered
5. Why no equilibrium?
   • Genetic predisposition
   • Social destruction and enslavement
   • Cultural upheaval