An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections

153 Pages·2014·1.98 MB·English

by  Ron Barrett

An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections
This page intentionally left blank
An Unnatural
History of Emerging
Infections
RON BARRETT AND
GEORGE J. ARMELAGOS
1
An Unnatural History of Emerging Infections. First Edition. Ron Barrett and George J. Armelagos
© Ron Barrett and George J. Armelagos 2013. Published 2013 by Oxford University Press.
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, ox2 6dp,
United Kingdom
O xford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford.
It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship,
and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of
Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Ron Barrett and George J. Armelagos 2013
Th e moral rights of the authors have been asserted
First Edition published in 2013
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics
rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013936271
ISBN 978–0–19–960829–4
Printed and bound by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Links to third party websites are provided by Oxford in good faith and
for information only. Oxford disclaims any responsibility for the materials
contained in any third party website referenced in this work.
George: To Jack and Mary Kelso
Ron: To the ancestors, the Panchdevi, and Mike the Chimpanzee
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgements
Th is book is a culmination of many years of work with many people. In particular, we would
like to thank Chris Kuzawa and Th om McDade, who were our co-authors on the seminal arti-
cle for this book. Credit also goes to James Lin for independently noting that the current
emerging disease trends represent a Th ird Epidemiological Transition. Th anks to Kristin
Harper, who contributed to our later thinking about these transitions. Th anks to all the stu-
dents in our emerging infections courses for their many questions and insights. Th anks as
well to Dennis Van Gerven, Alan Swedlund, Richard Meindl, Merrill Singer, Peter Brown,
Steve Hackenberger, Joe Lorenz, Ian Buvit, Brad Belbas, Erik Davis, David Woolsey, Gabe
Sibley, and John and Audrey Eyler. Special thanks to Scott Legge, Christy Hansen, and Steve
Sundby for their thoughts and comments on earlier drafts. Th anks to Clark Larson, Dennis
VanGerven, Dan Bailey, and Gwen Robbins Schug for permitting us to use their images in
this book. Special thanks to Justin Gibbens for his brilliantly provocative cover art. Ron would
like to thank his colleagues at Macalester Anthropology: Dianna Dean, Margo Dickinson,
Olga Gonzalez, Arjun Guneratne, Scott Legge, Sonia Patton, and Dianna Shandy, as well as
his family, Ron Sr., Dianne, Tara, Maya, Tiff any, Avena, Nic, and Taiya. And a very special
thanks to Lene Pedersen, Ron’s colleague, partner, and writing coach, who carefully read and
edited every draft of this book. And fi nally, we would like to thank our editors and supporters
at Oxford University Press: Ian Sherman, Helen Eaton, Lucy Nash, Muhammad Ridwaan, and
G. Hari Kumar for shepherding this project to completion.
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Introduction 1
Epidemiologic Transitions 5
Organization of this Book 8
PART ONE — Th e First Transition
1. Th e Prehistoric Baseline 15
1.1 Nomadic Foraging: Th en and Now 18
1.2 Subsistence, Nutrition, and Activity 20
1.3 Population Structure and Settlement 24
1.4 Social Organization and Inequalities 26
1.5 Conclusion 27
2. Revolution and the Domestication of Pathogens 29
2 .1 Measuring the Health of Dead People 32
2 .2 Societies in Transition 35
2.3 Selecting for Infectious Diseases 39
2.4 Europe and the People without Smallpox 41
PART TWO — Th e Second Transition
3. Why Germ Th eory Didn’t Matter 49
3.1 Germ Th eory versus the Sanitary Reform Movement 50
3.2 Th e McKeown Th esis 54
3.3 McKeown’s Critics and a Rejoinder 59
3 .4 Health Trade-off s and the Shape of Th ings to Come 62
4. Th e Worst of Both Worlds 65
4.1 Delayed and Incomplete Transitions 66
4.2 Chronic Diseases and New Syndemics 68
4.3 Aging and Poverty 70
4.4 Accelerated Globalization and Re-emerging Awareness 73
PART THREE — Th e Th ird Transition
5. New Diseases, Raw and Cooked 79
5.1 Th e Evolution of Invasion 81
5 .2 Virulence and Vulnerability 88
5.3 Th e Ancient Determinants of Future Pandemics 92