In the wake of Columbus: Native population biology in the postcontact Americas

Abstract

The commemoration of the Columbian quincentenary played an important role in stimulating new research on the biological effects of the arrival of Europeans on Native American groups throughout the New World. Although these discussions have involved many disciplines, physical anthropology has been underrepresented until recently. This article reviews a range of studies on the biological impact of European colonization of the Americas on native populations. Historical sources, mission and civil records, archaeological information, and human skeletal remains have provided a fund of data that are being used to document and interpret native health and well-being after 1492. Osteological investigations reveal that before contact, native populations were not living in a pristine, disease-free environment. Moreover, prehistoric populations experienced occasional eruptions of social conflict and violence, patterns of which are similar to what has been documented in contemporary small-scale societies. Archaeological, historical, and bioarchaeological studies provide compelling evidence that the arrival of Europeans did not occasion a sudden pandemic of smallpox in the early sixteenth century. Rather, epidemic disease in the contact era was a patchwork affair, striking some populations and not others at various times. Regionally based bioarchaeological investigations have disclosed new details about the contact period in the Americas and elsewhere (e.g., Polynesia), particularly in regard to variability in physiological stress, health status, diet and nutritional quality, and activity patterns. These studies show that although rapid population loss and extinction occurred in some areas, many groups survived and accommodated new and challenging circumstances. These findings also indicate that there are common elements to native response to contact with Europeans, but population and regional changes were shaped by localized factors. The demographic resurgence and population recovery during the twentieth century illustrates that Native Americans are a vital part of today's human biological landscape in the western hemisphere. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.