Epidemics, indigenous communities, and public health in the Covid-19 era

Views from smallpox inoculation campaigns in colonial Guatemala

Bibliographic Data

ID5850509
AuthorsMartha Few (Pennsylvania State University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume15
Issue3
Pages380-393
Publication date2020-11-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Global History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1740-0228 • E-ISSN: 1740-0236
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s1740022820000297
OpenAlexW3097295465
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited1

This article explores the tensions between well-intentioned humanitarianism and coercive colonialism during smallpox outbreaks in eighteenth-century Guatemala, when the state extended inoculation programmes to its predominant, culturally diverse Maya communities. Evidence from anti-epidemic campaigns shows public debates broadly comparable to the current COVID-19 crisis: debates about the measurably higher mortality rates for indigenous people and other marginalized groups; debates about the extent of the state's responsibility for the health of its peoples; and debates on whether or not coercion and violence should be used to ensure compliance with quarantines and public health campaigns. While inoculations provided medical assistance and material help to Maya communities, and resulted in demonstrably lower mortality rates from smallpox, at the same time they functioned as avenues for the expansion of colonial power to intervene in the daily lives of people in those communities, characterized by colonial actors as necessary for their own good, and for the broader public good

Coercion (linguistics · Maya · Pandemic · Smallpox vaccine · Race, Genetics, and Society · Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research

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