The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline Among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874 - Couverture souple

Boyd, Robert T.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0295749180 ISBN 13 : 9780295749181

Editeur : University of Washington Press, 2021

Synopsis

Examines imported diseases and their impact on Pacific Northwest Indigenous peoplesIn the late 1700s when European colonizers arrived on the Northwest Coast, they reported the presence of vigorous, diverse cultures—Tlingit, Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl), Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Coast Salish, and Chinookan—with a population conservatively estimated at more than 180,000. Just a century later the population had plummeted to only 35,000—a devastating loss of Indigenous lives caused by the introduction of diseases brought by settlers and colonizers. The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence examines the first century of contact and the effects of introduced diseases such as smallpox, malaria, measles, and influenza on Native American population size, structure, interactions, and viability. Whereas in most parts of the Americas disease transfer and depopulation occurred early and were poorly documented, the later date of Euro-American contact in the Pacific Northwest means that records are relatively complete. Through doctors’ records, ships’ logs, diaries, censuses, and Native American oral traditions and testimonies, Robert Boyd reconstructs the process of disease transfer and the profound demographic and cultural impact of specific epidemics. This definitive study of introduced diseases in the Pacific Northwest illuminates the magnitude of human suffering and traces connections between these processes and cultural change.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Robert T. Boyd is a research anthropologist with the department of Anthropology at Portland State University. He is co-editor with Kenneth Ames and Tony Johnson, of Chinookan Peoples of the Lower Columbia (University of Washington Press, 2013), editor of Indians, Fire, and the Land in the Pacific Northwest (Oregon State University Press, 1999), and author of The Coming of the Spirit of Pestilence: Introduced Infectious Diseases and Population Decline among Northwest Coast Indians, 1774-1874 (University of Washington Press & UBC Press, 1999), and Peoples of the Dalles: the Indians of Wascopam Mission (University of Nebraska Press, 1996).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Washington Press
• Date d'édition: 2021
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0295749180
• ISBN 13: 9780295749181
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 428
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible