Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador

ISBN-13: 9780521401869 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 168 str.

Suzanne Austin Alchon; Alan Knight

Opis

This book examines the relationship between indigenous populations in the north-central highlands of Ecuador and disease, especially those infections introduced by Europeans during the sixteenth century. Disease, of course, existed in the Americas long before 1500. But just as native societies resisted and eventually adapted to European conquest, so too did they adapt to Old World pathogens. Just as the responses of Indian communities to the economic and political demands of Spaniards varied over time, so too did the immunological responses of indigenous populations change over generations. What began in the sixteenth century as contact and invasion soon would involve both Indians and Europeans in a new history of biological, as well as social, adaptation.

Recenzje

"This slender book is packed with information on the history of disease in colonal Ecuador....Native Society and Disease in Colonial Ecuador is a clearly written and thoughtful study of health and disease in a critical period of Latin American history....Alchon does an admirable job of sifting through the material and explaining her interpretatons of the data....This book should find an audience among scholars who are concerned with the Spanish colonial period or who wish to understand how the events of that time have influenced today's Andean reality. As a study of epidemiological and cultural history, it should also be of interest to readers with backgrounds in medicine and allied fields of study. In addition, the book merits consideration for use as a case study in Latin America and medical anthropology courses." William T. Vickers, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

Spis treści

Acknowledgments; Introduction; 1. Along the avenue of volcanoes; 2. Disease, illness, and healing before 1534; 3. Conquest and epidemic disease; 4. Changing patterns of disease and demography; 5. Disaster and crisis in the 1690s; 6. Disease and demographic stagnation; Conclusion; Glossary; Bibliography; Index.