ABSTRACT
Native American populations declined precipitously in size following European contact and conquest. The magnitude of collapse continues to spark debate, as do discussions about how many may have inhabited the New World to begin with. Consensus is emerging, however, where contention prevailed before. That consensus attributes Indigenous depopulation, post-Columbus, primarily to the introduction of Old World contagions, against which Amerindians were immunologically defenceless. Many factors besides epidemic outbreaks are responsible for the erosion of autochthonous lives, but disease proved the most destructive of a fatal mix. The eruption and spread of COVID-19 affords the opportunity to look back and reflect on the role disease played in shaping Indigenous destinies in the wake of the Columbus landfall. Several settings are examined with comparative ends in mind: Hispaniola, today Haiti and the Dominican Republic; Mexico, its central heartland and its northern frontier; Guatemala; Ecuador and Peru; and Brazil. For each of these distinct settings, literature is reviewed that addresses problems of data, chronology, impact, and identification related to epidemic episodes, with an attempt made (1) to situate regional findings, historically, in hemispheric and global context and (2) indicate parallels with, and differences to, the ravages of COVID-19.
