Speaker: Ryan A. Kashanipour, University of Arizona
Title: Epidemics and Epistemologies: Experiencing Illness in Colonial Yucatán
Abstract: From decade long outbreaks of smallpox and measles to recurrent eruptions of typhus and influenza, epidemic outbreaks of disease were a part of the everyday experiences of the inhabitants of colonial Yucatán. Across the colonial period, from the sixteenth and into the nineteenth centuries, the region served as the mainland entry point for many Old World diseases. So endemic were these diseases that a chronicler of the seventeenth century remarked that “it was rare for someone to even pass through the land and without falling sick with one epidemic disease or another.” Local populations lived with and negotiated diseases at an everyday level, so much so that it shaped the nature of knowledge and colonial relations. This talk examine colonial remedies for diseases and aim to open up conversations about how past experiences with epidemics can open up new forms of understanding and interaction. This talk examines colonial remedies for diseases and aims to open up conversations about how past experiences with epidemics can open up new forms of understanding and interaction.
