Virgin Soil Epidemics and Demographic Collapse in Latin

America

Virgin Land/Virgin Soil?

• Virgin Soil: Initial outbreak of a disease previously unknown or absent from a particular area for many generations

• Precolumbian Diseases: syphilis & other trepanomas, tuberculosis, arthritis, (American) murine typhus, other enteric diseases probable

Biology and Epidemics

• Etiology

• Morbidity

• Mortality

• Environmental Factors (temperate vs. tropical, seasons)

• Ecological Systems (including human populations)

Epistemology and Epidemics

• Epistemological explanations central in determining human behavior

• Social Behavior in face of epidemics informed by epistemological concepts of Life, Death, Dying, the Hereafter and the “Here Before”

• Epistemological Understandings Inform Human Behavior when facing epidemics

– Prevention– Healing: Medicine and Prayer– Quality of Social Welfare and Health Care Delivery– Quarantine and/or Flight

http://www.elmuseo.org/taino/taincite.html

Hispaniola• Population and Epidemics

– 1491: 230,0000 or 1,500,000– 1650: <2000 Taino, +/- 5000 Spaniards

• Material World: Conuco Agriculture– 1491: Conuco Agriculture (Yuca & Batata)– 1650 Gold Mining & Sugar Plantation

• Social & Political– 1491: Cacigazcos & caciques– 1650: Forced Migration and Reducciones, Famine

• Epistemology– 1491: Cemie, Cohoba, and Conucos– 1650: Despair, abortions, suicide

Las Casas’ Hyperbole?

• “There came over them so much illness, death and misery, from which infinite numbers of fathers and mothers and children sadly died. So that with the killings of the wards and the starvation and sicknesses that came because of them, and the hardships and oppressions that afterward took place, and miseries… that according to what was believed there did not remain a third part of the multitudes of people that were on this island from the year of 1494 until that of 1496.”-Las Casas

Mexico & Tenotchtitlan• Population and Epidemics

– 1491: 10,000,000-12,000,000– 1520-21 Noche Triste– 1650: 1, 300,000

• Material World: – 1491 Maize, Beans, regional specialization– 1650 Silver Mining, Farming (wheat) & Domestic Animals, Cattle husbandry

• Social & Political– 1491: Aztec Empire with occupied client-state tributaries and dependent tribes– 1650: Reducciones, Labor rotations, forced migrations to mines in northwest,

tribute diverted to export• Epistemology

– 1491: Five Directions,Ages (Duality at 5th Cardinal Direction)– 1650: Temples Destroyed & replaced with Cathedrals, Nahuatl Royalty subject

to Spanish authorities

Inca Empire• Population and Epidemics

– 1491: 37,500,500 (H); 3,300,000 (L)– 1527 : Huayna Capac succeeded by Atahualpa in Quito, who threatens Inca

Emperor Huascar. 1650: 1, 300,300• Material World: Verticality (Mountains, Valleys, Plains)

– 1491 Potato, Quinoa, guinea pigs– 1600 Exports from Mines of Potosí to Ports of Lima

• Social & Political– 1491: Inca Redistributive System linked by labor rotations, ayllus, mitmaes

(colonists) and mita– 1600: Forced migrations to mines in northwest, Production diverted to export

• Epistemology– 1491: Viracocha; Inca as Sun God,– 1527: Huascar murdered, followed by Atahualpa, and Sun God vanquished– 1650: Viceroy Toledo in 1572 imposes new colonial order and puts end to neo-

Inca State

Execution of Atahualpa

“The earth refused to devour the Inca’s body – rocks trembled– tears made torrents, the Sun was obscured – the Moon ill.”

Guayna Capac, Inca:Cay curitacho micunqui?" (Do you eat this gold?) -- Candia, Spaniard: Este oro comemos." (We eat this gold.)

Demographic Collapse

Estimated Precolumbian Indigenous Population

  1492   1650

Area"High Counter"

(Dobyns)"Low Counter"

(Rosenblatt) Nadir (Lowest)

c. Caribbean 553,750 230,000 22,150

a.Mexican Civilization 30,000,000 12,000,000 1,500,000

b.Central America 10,800,000 4,800,000 540,000

d, Andean Civilization 37,500,000 3,300,000 1,500,000

e. Other 9,000,000   450,000

Total 78,300,000 13,400,000 3,540,000

96% 74%

Population New Spain/Mexico 1700-2000

010,00020,00030,00040,00050,00060,00070,00080,00090,000

100,000

Years

Pop

ulat

ion

Series1 2,100 5800 13610 15790 98880

1700 1800 1900 1950 2000

Population (Other Latin America) 1700-2000

050,000

100,000150,000200,000250,000300,000350,000400,000450,000500,000

Year

Popu

latio

n

0 0 6808 45960 139300 408340

1700 1800 1900 1950 2000

Historical Epidemiology: What Can We Learn?

• Ecological Systems: Human populations are integral to ecological systems, environmental transformation, and Epidemic Disease

• eg. Relation between shift from Rubber tapping to cattle ranching in Brazilian Amazon and spread of Chagas Disease

• Economy and Epidemics• Trade & trading networks (ships and boats, paths and roads)

– Introduction of new plants and animals• Markets

– Disruption in circulation and flow of goods– Introduction of new products

• Source of prosperity/livelihood– Agriculture, husbandry, hunting, fishing & gathering, mining, industry

• Social Conditions and Epidemics• Settlement Patterns (Fixed, Migratory)• Migrations (rural –urban or urban-rural)• Social Standing and Relative Prosperity

• Politics and Epidemics • Occupation vs. Colonization• Redistributive vs. hierarchical

Denial and Political Will

• Investment in Prevention and Threats to World Economy– Re-emergence of malaria, dengue, and other tropical diseases

in part due to weakened vaccination rates in health sector reforms privileging privatization over social medicine

• Outbreak of polio in D.R. 1999 (due to breakdown in vaccination program from inadequate allocation of resources)

• Emergence of Multi-drug resistant TB in Caribbean introduced in NY in 1990s (due to lack of treatment/medication)

• HIV/AIDS in Haiti

Looking Ahead: Infectious Disease and Disease Prevention

• “High” counters vs. “Low” counters in Predicting Epidemics

• spread of AIDS world wide• Cholera in Peru 1991• Re-emergence of MDR TB, Malaria, Dengue, and

IPD

• Health Care Inequities: Global and Local• Cholera in Colombia (1991) Urban vs. Rural

Indians • HIV/AIDS in Haiti

Estimated number of people living with HIV in Latin America and Caribbean, 1986–2005

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

Mill

ion

Number of people living with HIV

1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Year

Epistemology in Epidemic Prevention

o Effective Intervention and/or Prevention oRequires Specific Knowledge of Local

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices (KAP)oRequires understanding of core

epistemological concepts about life, death, dying, the hereafter, and the “here before”

oRequires Expertise from Area Studies (knowledge of language, culture, history, religion, politics, economic…..)

• “Research and surveillance can map the global movement and evolution of microbes and guide interventions. Integration of knowledge and skills from many disciplines – the social, biological, and physical sciences – is needed. The focus should be system analysis and the ecosystem, rather than a disease, microbe, or host.” - M.E. Wilson, MD, EID 1:2 (April-June, 1995)

•

Epistemology and Epidemics

• Disease: medically defined physiological dysfunction

• Illness: Individual Perception about disease

• Sickness: Social role of affected individual