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Hey, I have a random question, and I thought the erudite, eclectic people of Dreamwidth might know. I’m not quite sure what to Google!
What did indigenous Americans, or specific groups within that, think/know about disease pre-1492? And what did they think was happening when the Europeans brought terrible disease? For that matter, what did the Europeans think caused it?
Like, presumably they realised it was connected to these new arrivals - though I remember reading that the Mayans (?I think?) had a terrible outbreak of some disease shortly before the Europeans appeared. I’m thinking about the different theories around plague in England, when that came; some people thought it was a punishment from God. The Aztecs had some sense that they needed to propitiate their gods, right, via sacrifice? So did they think they’d failed to do that, and that was why these terrible things were happening to them? They suffered an epidemic where people bled from the eyes and mouth and were dead within a few days, which wiped out about 80% of the population -- truly apocalyptic and horrific. I almost wonder if you’d have to blame the gods, because like… however destructive the colonists were, it feels like it’d be hard to believe other humans could be responsible for damage on that scale, even if it was unintentional.
Did they think the Europeans infected them deliberately, or was it conceived of more like a natural disaster? Did they try to avoid them once the illnesses began? I did find one short Jstor article talking about Aztec responses to the terrible epidemics, but it said the sources didn’t seem to speculate about the origin of the diseases. I know a lot of Aztec writing was destroyed by the Spaniards, so maybe we just don’t know… but I’m so curious. Especially if maybe the Incas or various North American groups had different theories about what was happening. There must've been a lot of wild attempts at curing the diseases? But maybe it just swept through so fast there wasn't much time to experiment.
The reason I wondered about this is that I listened to the Mayflower episode of a BBC history podcast called You’re Dead To Me, and it mentioned that the Nauset people helped the settlers -- despite having just lost a vast proportion of their population to disease after Europeans arrived. I feel like if I’d been the Nauset, I’d be hiding from or shooting them! I mean, I know that’s a response from someone who knows about germ theory and knows that most diseases I can get will be contracted from another human, but even so.
I’ve heard that Europeans gave Native Americans blankets infected with smallpox - deliberately? Did they know enough about it to know that’d work?
Thank you for indulging this ignorant Brit's questions :)
What did indigenous Americans, or specific groups within that, think/know about disease pre-1492? And what did they think was happening when the Europeans brought terrible disease? For that matter, what did the Europeans think caused it?
Like, presumably they realised it was connected to these new arrivals - though I remember reading that the Mayans (?I think?) had a terrible outbreak of some disease shortly before the Europeans appeared. I’m thinking about the different theories around plague in England, when that came; some people thought it was a punishment from God. The Aztecs had some sense that they needed to propitiate their gods, right, via sacrifice? So did they think they’d failed to do that, and that was why these terrible things were happening to them? They suffered an epidemic where people bled from the eyes and mouth and were dead within a few days, which wiped out about 80% of the population -- truly apocalyptic and horrific. I almost wonder if you’d have to blame the gods, because like… however destructive the colonists were, it feels like it’d be hard to believe other humans could be responsible for damage on that scale, even if it was unintentional.
Did they think the Europeans infected them deliberately, or was it conceived of more like a natural disaster? Did they try to avoid them once the illnesses began? I did find one short Jstor article talking about Aztec responses to the terrible epidemics, but it said the sources didn’t seem to speculate about the origin of the diseases. I know a lot of Aztec writing was destroyed by the Spaniards, so maybe we just don’t know… but I’m so curious. Especially if maybe the Incas or various North American groups had different theories about what was happening. There must've been a lot of wild attempts at curing the diseases? But maybe it just swept through so fast there wasn't much time to experiment.
The reason I wondered about this is that I listened to the Mayflower episode of a BBC history podcast called You’re Dead To Me, and it mentioned that the Nauset people helped the settlers -- despite having just lost a vast proportion of their population to disease after Europeans arrived. I feel like if I’d been the Nauset, I’d be hiding from or shooting them! I mean, I know that’s a response from someone who knows about germ theory and knows that most diseases I can get will be contracted from another human, but even so.
I’ve heard that Europeans gave Native Americans blankets infected with smallpox - deliberately? Did they know enough about it to know that’d work?
Thank you for indulging this ignorant Brit's questions :)