Return to Hispaniola: Reassessing a Demographic Catastrophe

Livi‐Bacci, Massimo

doi:10.1215/00182168-83-1-3

Cited by 30 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Material culture left behind by early inhabitants indicates that there were successive waves of people from perhaps Florida and both South and Central America into the Caribbean (Hulme 1992;Keegan 1995;Toro-Labrador, Wever, and Martinez-Cruzado 2003). Demographic estimates place about three to five million people on the islands at the time of European contact (Livi-Bacci 2003;Paquette and Engerman 1996;Rouse 1992). Despite the variability in the estimates, there is agreement that the numbers of native individuals tragically decreased postEuropean contact.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospecting the past: genetic perspectives on the extinction and survival of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

Torres

2014

New Genetics and Society

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In this paper, I examine discourses of survival and extinction regarding the fates of indigenous Caribbean peoples and the manner in which genetic ancestry data influences these discourses. I argue that ideas of extinction and survival are intricately tied in places where a hybrid national identity is generally accepted, thus making the incorporation of genetic data into these debates more malleable. Meanwhile, other Caribbean contexts present the possibility for genetic data to significantly affect people's conception of how indigenous people should fit within contemporary conceptualizations of the nation. Secondly, I explore the incongruities between folk and scientific understandings of ancestry as well as how ideologies of race, histories of colonialism, and political economy affect the manner in which researchers present genetic ancestry. Finally, I call for genetic anthropologists to "look beyond the laboratory" and to be prepared and willing to engage in the repercussions of their research. Such an engagement would involve the repudiation of racist applications of genetic ancestry data and making meaningful attempts to include and collaborate with members of the studied communities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospecting the past: genetic perspectives on the extinction and survival of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

Torres

2014

New Genetics and Society

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“…Jones, “Death, Uncertainty, and Rhetoric.” Livi‐Bacci, for example, focuses on “disarray, disruption, and dislocation” rather than epidemics in explaining Taíno population collapse on Hispaniola between 1492 and 1518; see Livi‐Bacci, “Return to Hispaniola,” 44. Reséndez suggests that a “nexus of slavery, overwork, and famine” killed more Caribbean Natives than introduced diseases before 1550; see Reséndez, The Other Slavery , 17.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…For inconclusive numbers, see, e.g., Alchon, A Pest in the Land , 147–172; and Livi‐Bacci, “Return to Hispaniola,” esp. 6–11.…”

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Colonialism and Other Afflictions: Rethinking Native American Health History

Archer

2016

History Compass

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Scholarly debate persists about the role of disease in the European colonization of the Americas. Were human pathogens the shock troops of conquest or a by‐product of colonial incursions? Biological warfare or an accident of ecology? Historians and other scholars have recently raised the stakes on this 500‐year‐old debate by questioning the received narrative of Native American disease and depopulation after 1492 – in particular, the notion of “virgin soil” epidemics. This article reviews that new literature and makes a case for understanding the Native health past in all its complexity. Departing from a growing consensus about the contingent role of disease in the colonial process, the article suggests ways to develop the broader history of Native American health.

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“…For example, he thinks that Hispaniola's contact population was 'several hundred thousands' rather than the 2 million to 8 million estimates proffered by various High Counters. 11 Beyond Hispaniola, Livi-Bacci is wary even of providing ranges of estimates, and does not do so for either Mesoamerica or the Andes. He does cite the range of estimates in the High Counter literature for various regions, but otherwise refrains from citing any High Counter calculations.…”

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confidence: 99%

Recent Work and Prospects in American Indian Contact Population

Henige

2007

History Compass

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The population levels of the newly discovered western hemisphere at contact have been an object of observers’ attention since the first voyage of Columbus. The numbers that have been developed over time reflected the environments in which they evolved – sometimes they were very high and sometimes very low. The latest of these cycles, dating from the 1940s and still in vogue, reflects the highest numbers, as well as the most elaborate methodology, ever applied to the problem. The results have been estimates that are many times most of those previously advanced, and the mechanism to explain this substantially greater decline has been epidemic European diseases, to which the American Indians had no resistance. The High Counters’ methodology involves taking relatively small numbers in the record and multiplying these many times over to reach new numbers that are ten to twenty times as large. A major component of this practice is to presume that the epidemics in question spread across the hemisphere even before Europeans could assess their impact. For this hypothesis, and for several other elements of the exercise, there is no evidence whatever. Despite this handicap, the new cadres of numbers have themselves spread far and wide and can be found in a variety of sources aimed at various audiences.

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Return to Hispaniola: Reassessing a Demographic Catastrophe

Cited by 30 publications

References 15 publications

Prospecting the past: genetic perspectives on the extinction and survival of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

Prospecting the past: genetic perspectives on the extinction and survival of indigenous peoples of the Caribbean

Colonialism and Other Afflictions: Rethinking Native American Health History

Recent Work and Prospects in American Indian Contact Population

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