Indigenous Perceptions of Disease: Smallpox in Mexico with Tara Malanga
Episode 31 - October 11, 2020
Tara Malanga (Rutgers University) comes on the podcast to discuss her research on colonial Mexico. The conversation begins with a survey of smallpox and the situation in the New World just before Columbus, then examines smallpox after Contact. Tara describes some of the sources and methodology she uses in her research, and describes some of the ways indigenous populations understood the new infectious diseases they encountered, particularly in the sixteenth century. In the post-interview reflection session, Merle and Lee discuss meta level academic research, comparing their own field and discipline to others.
Further Reading
- Camilla Townsed. Fifth Sun: A New History of the Aztecs. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
- Richard Herzog. How Aztecs Reacted to Colonial Epidemics
- Noble David Cook. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Francis J. Brooks, “Revising the Conquest of Mexico: Smallpox, Sources, and Populations.” The Journal of Interdisciplinary History 24, no. 1 (Summer 1993): 1–29.
Our Guest
Tara Malanga,
Instructor, English Writing Program, Rutgers University.
