Boletín de Antropología ISSN: 0120-2510 Universidad de Antioquia Buchillet, Dominique Colonization and Epidemic Diseases in the Upper Rio Negro Region, Brazilian Amazon (Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries)* 1 Boletín de Antropología, vol. 33, no. 55, 2018, January-June, pp. 102-122 Universidad de Antioquia DOI: 10.17533/udea.boan.v33n55a06 Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=55755367005 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System Redalyc More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America and the Caribbean, Spain and Journal's webpage in redalyc.org Portugal Project academic non-profit, developed under the open access initiative Colonization and Epidemic Diseases in the Upper Rio Negro Region, Brazilian Amazon (Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries)1 Dominique Buchillet Doctorate in Anthropology (medical anthropology) Independent researcher (former researcher at the French Institute of Research for Development-IRD) Email-address:
[email protected] Buchillet, Dominique (2018). “Colonization and Epidemic Diseases in the Upper Rio Negro Region, Brazilian Amazon (Eighteenth-Nineteenth Cen- turies)”. En: Boletín de Antropología. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, vol. 33, N.º 55, pp. 102-122. DOI: 10.17533/udea.boan.v33n55a06 Texto recibido: 24/04/2017; aprobación final: 04/10/2017 Abstract. This paper examines demographic and health impacts of the colonization of the upper Rio Negro region during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Smallpox, measles, and epidemic fevers plagued native populations, contributing to the depopulation of the region and depleting the Indian workforce crucial to the economic survival of the Portuguese colony and the Brazilian empire. It examines how colonists and scientists explained the biological vulnerability to smallpox and measles, two major killers of Indians during these periods, and also discusses the nature of the diseases that plagued Indian populations.