Hispanic American Historical Review 84:4 Copyright 2004 by Duke University Press for example, â[J]ust as cold temperatures . . . limited the growth of native populations, heat and a scarcity of water had similar effectsâ ( p. 41). The author justiï¬es her sketchy presentation of pre-Columbian disease history in the weaknesses of the historical record. Other leads, among them landscape epidemiology, traditional pharmacopoeias, and modern local etiologies, can be useful in reconstructing preconquest conï¬gurations if one is willing to probe complementary pathways. The zoonotic trio of American Chagasâ disease, leishmaniasis, and bartonellosis deserves much more than the minimalist commentary offered. Leptospirosis is also described in this book as being a pre-Columbian disease without substantive evidence or citation. In spite of the bookâs purported aim to provide balance, its true focus remains the mortality from epidemics of European-introduced diseases. Smallpox â so dramatic in its capacity to spread, its lethal impact, and its characteristic red pustules that make it readily detectable in the historical record â holds center stage. That ease of identiï¬cation has overdrawn smallpoxâs impact vis-à -vis malaria, which is virtually ignored as a principal killer. Malaria epidemics were common, but it is its endemicness in coastal
/lp/duke-university-press/muddied-waters-race-region-and-local-history-in-colombia-1846-1948-h1QInp7usV