Contact interethnique et épidémies au Brésil

Abstract

The devastating impact of epidemics of infectious diseases on Amerindians was principally attributed by F.L. Black to the high degree of biological homogeneity of these latter. This hypothesis does not explain, however, the differential demographic and sanitary impact of epidemics on these populations. Other factors related to the physical and social environment of the disease and to the European politics toward the autochthonous populations must be considered in order to disclose the causes of the extinction or of the demographic collapse of numerous indigenous peoples in Brazil or in other countries of the Americas