The Decimating Effects of Infectious Disease in the New World
"It is often said that in the centuries after Columbus landed in the New
World on 12 October, 1492, more native North Americans died each year from
infectious diseases brought by the European settlers than were born." (6) The
decimation of people indigenous to the Americas by diseases introduced by
European invaders is unprecedented. While it is difficult to accurately
determine the population of the pre-Columbian Americas, scholars estimate the
number to have been between 40 and 50 million people. The population in
Mexico alone in 1519 is believed to have been approximately 30 million. By
1568, that number was down to 3 million inhabitants. Although there were other
causes for the population reduction such as "alcoholism, warfare, genocide,
cultural disruption, and declines in fertility", it is now known that disease played a
central role in the depopulation of the Americas. But how is it that these native
peoples harbored virtually no immunity to the European diseases? What were
these diseases and how did they come to be so feared? Who introduced them
to this New World? How did this biological disaster affect the social structure of
the Indians? This brief will attempt to answer the preceding questions.
How is the presence or absence of disease in the New World determined?
Archeologists are able to determine if a society or individual fell prey to disease
by examining teeth, bones, coprolites(feces), and artistic depictions. Through
the excavations of burial mounds, scientists have discovered that certain
afflictions existed even before the white man landed. "Missing limbs, skin
diseases, blindness, cleft palate, club...
... middle of paper ...
... Typhus arrives
1556-60 - Influenza hits Europe and Japan
1558,59 - Influenza hits the New World
16th and 17th c. - Diphtheria, mumps, smallpox(again), and
Influenza(again)(1)
Works Cited:
1. McNeill, William. Plagues and Peoples.
2. Cowley, Geoffrey. The Great Disease Migration. Newsweek, Fall-Winter 1991
vol. 118, pg.54
3. Lunenfeld, Marvin. 1492 Discovery, Invasion, Encounter. Lexington, Mass. and
Toronto, D.C. Heath and Company, 1991.
4. Bedini, Silvio A., Editor. The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia. Vol 1. New
York, NY, Simon and Schuster, 1992
5. Sale, Kirkpatrick. The Conquest of Paradise, Christopher Columbus and the
Columbian Legacy. New York, NY, Penguin Group, 1990
6. Meltzer, David J. How Columbus Sickened the New World. New Scientist,
Oct. 10, 1992 v. 136 pg. 38
This book is complete with some facts, unfounded assumptions, explores Native American gifts to the World and gives that information credence which really happened yet was covered up and even lied about by Euro-centric historians who have never given the Indians credit for any great cultural achievement. From silver and money capitalism to piracy, slavery and the birth of corporations, the food revolution, agricultural technology, the culinary revolution, drugs, architecture and urban planning our debt to the indigenous peoples of America is tremendous. With indigenous populations mining the gold and silver made capitalism possible. Working in the mines and mints and in the plantations with the African slaves, they started the industrial revolution that then spread to Europe and on around the world. They supplied the cotton, rubber, dyes, and related chemicals that fed this new system of production. They domesticated and developed the hundreds of varieties of corn, potatoes, cassava, and peanuts that now feed much of the world. They discovered the curative powers of quinine, the anesthetizing ability of coca, and the potency of a thousand other drugs with made possible modern medicine and pharmacology. The drugs together with their improved agriculture made possible the population explosion of the last several centuries. They developed and refined a form of democracy that has been haphazardly and inadequately adopted in many parts of the world. They were the true colonizers of America who cut the trails through the jungles and deserts, made the roads, and built the cities upon which modern America is based.
"Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health." Public Health Reports. July/August 1998: 372 EBSCOhost. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/login.html>. (11 February 1999)
Jewelll, N., & Russell, K. (1992). Current health status of african americans. Journal of community health nursing, 9(3), 161-169.
The nature of the disorder makes it difficult to treat, since patients are convinced that they suffer from a real and serious medical problem. Indeed, the mere su...
"5 Leading Theories for Why We Laugh?and the Jokes That Prove Them Wrong." Slate Magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Feb. 2014.
Many people believe that Native Americans are a disadvantaged group of individuals in many ways. Culturally, in that many of the cultures of the various tribes across the Americas were taken from them by Europeans and their descendants. Socially, in that they are unlike other minorities in the United States because of their extra-constitutional status; and even medically, stemming from the general belief that Natives are at a higher risk for disease than other ethnicities due to tobacco and alcohol use, especially when used together (Falk, Hiller-Sturmhöfel, & Yi, 2006).
The article on Black America Web entitled “The state of Black America, Part 4: Health as Wealth” (Lewis, 17 Jan. 05) is mainly addressing how African Americans should get check-ups, eat a healthier diet, exercise, among other things to maintain their health. The authors main point of writing an article about health is so that African Americans will be propelled to take preventative measures to prevent and treat disease that may be debilitating or lethal, to get professional help if they are not feeling mentally prepared, and to put aside mistrust of the medical profession.
Williams, D. (1999). Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: The Added Effects of Racism and Discrimination. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896, 173-188.
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The physiological definition describes laughter as "a successive rhythmic spasmodic expiration with open glottis and vibration of the vocal folds," or "as a series of spasmodic and partly involuntary expirations with inarticulate vocalizations. . ." These dictionary definitions emphasize a rhythmic and spasmodic expiration. While this is true, the motivations for it and its aftermath are much further reaching.
How do lots of people handle humor? There are people that take humor very seriously and if you make a joke they get offended very easily. In the other hand, there are people that think humor is a constant habit and sometimes it can be taken too far. Many of us use humor to relieve boredom, to gain power and relieve tension?
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