Historic and bioarchaeological evidence supports late onset of post-Columbian epidemics in Native California.

ABSTRACT: Catastrophic decline of Indigenous populations in the Americas following European contact is one of the most severe demographic events in the history of humanity, but uncertainty persists about the timing and scale of the collapse, which has implications for not only Indigenous history but also the understanding of historical ecology. A long-standing hypothesis that a continent-wide pandemic broke out immediately upon the arrival of Spanish seafarers has been challenged in recent years by a model of regional epidemics erupting asynchronously, causing different rates of population decline in different areas. Some researchers have suggested that, in California, significant depopulation occurred during the first two centuries of the post-Columbus era, which led to a "rebound" in native flora

SUBMITTER: Jones TL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8285907 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature