The Myth Of Syphilis: The Natural History Of Treponematosis In North America (Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0813027942 ISBN 13: 9780813027944

Verlag: University Press of Florida, 2005

Inhaltsangabe

Exploring the long-standing question of the origins of syphilis, this book proposes a new understanding of the dynamic interactions of disease and culture in the New World. It brings together a complete picture of the diverse pathological evidence of a bacterial disease--treponematosis--manifest in the North American archaeological record at the time of Christopher Columbus's first journey, and it presents a strong argument against the earlier identification of modern venereal syphilis with indigenous North American treponemal disease.

            For almost 500 years, native North Americans have been blamed for "giving the world syphilis" and by implication accused of sexual immorality. Contributors to this volume identify and investigate the origins and various manifestations of all ranges of treponemal diseases across the continent and show that the true picture of disease evolution is both different and far more interesting than past scholarship suggests. They summarize current archaeological and historical information from a variety of regions and times, both before and after 1492, and consider closely the specific question of whether evidence exists for the presence of the venereal form of treponemal disease that would be equivalent to the venereal syphilis that ravaged 16th-century Europe. Their investigation challenges the unequivocal identification of all pre-Columbian treponemal disease as venereal syphilis and shows that endemic treponemal disease was present at varying levels throughout North America for at least two millennia before the late 15th-century trans-Atlantic voyages of discovery.

 

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

 

Mary Lucas Powell is former director of the W. S. Webb Museum of Anthropology, University of Kentucky, and current editor of publications for the Paleopathology Association. She is the author of Status and Health in Prehistory: A Case Study of the Moundville Chiefdom.

 

Della Collins Cook, professor of anthropology at Indiana University, has written extensively on the paleopathology of ancient New World populations. She is a contributor to Bones of the Maya: Studies of Ancient Skeletons and Sex and Gender in Paleopathological Perspective.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: University Press of Florida
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2005
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0813027942
• ISBN 13: 9780813027944
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 509
• Herausgeber: Powell Mary Lucas, Cook Della Collins
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar