Vectors of Death: The Archaeology of European Contact

Description

Author: Ramenofsky, Ann F.

Publisher: University of New Mexico Press

Pub Date: 1987 (First edition)

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Book: Fair to Good.  Binding tight.  No marks, tears, bends or folds.  Appears unread.  Dust Jacket: Fair.  NOT price clipped (no price indicated).  All four corners show varying  degrees of wear, spine head and foot worn.  Upper rear cover edge near spine head has an approx. 1/2″ closed tear.  Upper rear cover edge has an approx. 1/16″ chip with a slight wrinkle along edge.

Notes: Demographic archaeology.  Prior to the first European contact estimates of Native American populations varied from one to eighteen million.  Ramenofsky uses archaeological data from the Lower Mississippi Valley, central New York, and the Middle Missouri to analyze disease spread and population loss.  (N.B. Disease causing micro-organisms are not preserved in the archaeological record.)  “If the loss (of population) is registered in the archaeological contact record and predates sustained European presence in the region, then disease is the only reasonable explanation of the event.  If loss follows sustained colonization, then other variables could be responsible.”  (From Chapter One)