An Interactive Annotated World Bibliography of Printed and Digital Works in the History of Medicine and the Life Sciences from Circa 2000 BCE to 2022 by Fielding H. Garrison (1870-1935), Leslie T. Morton (1907-2004), and Jeremy M. Norman (1945- ) Traditionally Known as “Garrison-Morton”

15961 entries, 13944 authors and 1935 subjects. Updated: March 22, 2024

CAMERON, Catherine M.

1 entries
  • 10341

Beyond germs: Native depopulation in North America. Edited by Catherine M. Cameron, Paul Kelton, and Alan C. Swedlund.

Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2015.

This book "challenges the “virgin soil” hypothesis that was used for decades to explain the decimation of the indigenous people of North America. This hypothesis argues that the massive depopulation of the New World was caused primarily by diseases brought by European colonists that infected Native populations lacking immunity to foreign pathogens. In Beyond Germs, contributors expertly argue that blaming germs lets Europeans off the hook for the enormous number of Native American deaths that occurred after 1492.

"Archaeologists, anthropologists, and historians come together in this --- volume to report a wide variety of other factors in the decline in the indigenous population, including genocide, forced labor, and population dislocation. These factors led to what the editors describe in their introduction as “systemic structural violence” on the Native populations of North America" (publisher).



Subjects: ANTHROPOLOGY › Medical Anthropology, COUNTRIES, CONTINENTS AND REGIONS › United States , NATIVE AMERICANS & Medicine, Social or Sociopolitical Histories of Medicine & the Life Sciences