欧洲流行病入侵与北美印第安人社会变迁

The Invasion of the European Epidemics and the Changes of the North American Indian Society

欧洲流行病进入北美洲,对北美印第安人产生了深远的影响。流行病不仅使印第安人人口锐减,更重要的是,它在心理上给印第安人以沉重打击,使他们陷入了一种宿命论和悲观主义。它还改变了印第安人的部落社会组织和权力结构体系,疫病肆虐之后的部落村庄、幸存者重新组合成混合不同部族、语言、文化的新的群体组织,新的社会组成、战争局势和部落上层人口的减损都冲击了部落的权力结构。不同的部落受流行病影响程度不同,死亡率不同,导致部落间军事力量对比发生变化,进而改变了战争的胜负状况,改变了地区的局势,影响了各部落之间以及印第安人部落与欧洲殖民者之间的关系。

The European epidemics have had a significant impact on the native people after being introduced into the North America.They not only decreased the population,what＇s more important,they gave a heavy blow to the psychology of the native people,getting them into a kind of fatalism and pessimism.Epidemics also changed the native social organization and the structure of the traditional power system.The tribal villages were destroyed by the diseases,therefore the survivors of different tribes had to resettle and coalesced into new social forms,compounding varieties of tribes,languages and cultures.New social organizations,new war situation and the decrease of the up-class population together affected the traditional power system.The epidemics caused mortality and damages to varying degrees among tribes,which destabilized the military balance between tribes,changed the outcome of wars,altered the regional situation and finally affected the relationship between tribes and the relationship between the Indians and the Europeans.