"This paper surveys the recent literature...on disease and health in the Americas before 1492, drawing some general conclusions regarding the major causes of mortality in various regions of the hemisphere. The paper adopts a comparative perspective, examining patterns of mortality in areas sparsely populated by societies of hunter-gatherers and those of the more densely settled regions including Mesoamerica and the Andean Highlands. It also compares causes of mortality in different geographical zones ranging from the tropical latitudes of the Caribbean and Central America to the temperate zones of North and South America."
The incidence of complex families and households in sixteenth-century Mexico is analyzed using data from the Nahuatl censuses, specifically the censuses of two villages in Morelos translated into English by S. L. Cline in 1993. The author concludes that high mortality was no obstacle to the formation of complex families in this population.
The author examines family structure in Santa Fe, the capital of New Granada, a Spanish colony that included Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. The focus is on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He finds that social class structure was closely related to ethnic group and skin color, and that the sex ratio was biased toward women. Women also headed nearly 50% of all households. Data are mainly from the 1801 smallpox census.
The author reviews historical and contemporary literature covering the population size and characteristics of Native Americans at the time of first European contact. In particular, the work of David Henige is critically analyzed. A reply by Henige is included (p. 19).
The author comments on an article by Thomas M. Whitmore, entitled "Sixteenth-century population decline in the Basin of Mexico: a systems simulation", which appeared in the Fall 1991 issue of the Latin American Population History Bulletin.
