外来传染性疾病与美国早期印第安人——美国学界研究的回顾与反思

Infectious Diseases from Old World and the American Indians:A Review of American Scholarships on This Issue

美国学界关于外来传染性疾病与美国印第安人的研究经历了从内史到外史的巨大转变,即专门的医学史转向了与新史学潮流紧密结合的医学社会史。不仅如此,美国印第安人也成为学者们研究的主要角色,他们如何应对外来传染性疾病也成为这一课题的重要组成部分。不过,美国学界也留下了很多悬而未决的问题,比如关于殖民主义与外来传染性疾病在美国早期历史上作用的争论、关于1492年美洲人口的争论以及关于处女地流行病的争论等。

The study on the infectious diseases from Old World and the American Indians in early America, transformed from specialized history of medicine to social history of medicine which related closely to New History since mid-20th century. In addition, the American Indians have become the focus of the American scholars and how the American Indians react to the invasion of these diseases has become an important part of the study of American disease history. Finally,there are still many questions for the American scholars to debate, such as the roles of infectious diseases and colonialism, the population of the American Indians in 1492, and the paradigm of Virgin Soil Epidemics.