ANTHROP 2U03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Emerging Infectious Disease, Retrospective Diagnosis, Ancient Dna
6 Dec 2017
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Debate question: bubonic plague caused the black death. Buboes and other descriptions seem to suggest bubonic plague. Historical descriptions of other factors suggest bubonic plague (boats spreading it with rats on board, trade, leaving the city often helped) Timeline (some spread is consistent, number days after shit arrives someone is sick, people not exposed to plague since justinian) Ancient dna (known plague victims from this period found to have dna from yersinia pestis (three main forms: pneumonic, septicemic, and bubonic plagues) Remains of rats have not been found at places heavily impacted by the black death. Spread seems too fast for what we know about yersinia pestis and its rat and tick hosts (maybe it was pneumonic?) Retrospective diagnosis challenging (how other described it, often not clinical descriptions, embellishment) Why is the chapter called (cid:858)cro(cid:449)ds, filth, and po(cid:448)erty? (cid:859) When you think of plague, you think of grimy, terrible, gross. Or to live in these cities suffering from it.
