Emily Griffin - Outside Reading

    The reading Contact and Contagion: The Roanoke Colony and Influenza was assigned in my anthropology course. This reading talks about two explorations 1) John Smith and 2) Thomas Hariot and how upon these explorations visits with local tribal leaders led to the devastating disease that wiped out the American Indians in the Roanoke colony. Peter Mires investigates what contagion was responsible for the major reduction in the American Indian population. Mires states that the possible suspects are smallpox, plague, yellow fever, influenza, malaria, measles, and typhus but after observing the writings that describe their explorations he concludes that influenza was the most conceivable suspect. But after reading this article I thought about how learning about this history and these facts can help us in the present and future come up with solutions by reviewing history. And it made me think of the quote by George Santayana, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.” This got me thinking about how people in the past utilized the environment and natural resources and how we are using, more accurately abusing it now and causing climate change in a way that has not happened in the past. So in this case we are left with coming up with new innovations and can’t necessarily rely entirely on history for a solution.  

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