Native Depopulation, Health, and Disease in South America: Consequences and Legacies of Colonialism

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ID: 314302
2026
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Abstract
Abstract Integrating evidence from bioarchaeology, history, and demography, we describe the biocultural effects of European invasion and colonialism on Native peoples of South America. We summarize the evidence for Native depopulation and detail the different epidemic diseases, such as small pox and measles, how their pathogens spread, and who were most likely to perish from these diseases. We synthesize recent bioarchaeological scholarship on the biocultural effects of colonialism on Native skeletal health and fertility, with the caveats that these studies still lag behind what is known from other regions of the Americas and that much more work needs to be done, particularly in countries other than Peru, Ecuador, and Brazil. We emphasize that multiple and interacting factors lead to Native depopulation and that the negative impacts of colonialism persisted for hundreds of years and arguably to the present day. We maintain that despite the devastation of warfare and violence, pathogens and epidemic disease, enslavement, forced relocation and forced labor, and deracination, Native communities found ways to adapt, persist, and reconstitute.
Reference Key
openalex_W7161946111 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Melissa S. Murphy, Alexander Garcia-Putnam
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195391367.013.81
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195391367.013.81
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