The Role Of Globalization In Indigenous Populations

Globalization has been a significant factor in human history, and continues to have a great presence in today’s world. Movement and exploration have allowed humankind to become a globally connected community, but have also come with grave consequences. Unfortunately, when people move somewhere new they bring much more than just themselves; included in this are pathogens and disease vectors (Wilson, 1995, p.41). When exploring this topic of carrying disease to new areas, what commonly comes to mind are the epidemics that raged within Indigenous populations of the Americas as a result of European contact. People were moving from Europe to the “New World” in a way that had never been experienced before. A surprise to the Europeans was the Indigenous

The settlers also caused a shift in the ways of life of the Indigenous peoples. Before settlers, the low population density and increased mobility of Indigenous peoples did not allow for widespread disease epidemics. Although the "New World" was in no way free from all disease, the influx of settlers to the Americas lead to increased person-to-person contact, presented unfamiliar diseases to foreign geographies, and introduced new ways of life to Indigenous populations; expanding avenues through which infectious diseases could flourish.
With an increase in the population and the explorative nature of the settlers, Indigenous peoples no longer found themselves isolated, but rather in repeated contact with Europeans. The result of this raised population density was a favourable environment for the spread of infectious disease (Gaetano, 2011, p.57). The fur trade and established trading posts were factors in the intensifying of contact between the Europeans and Indigenous peoples as well as the increasing population in some areas (Carlos & Lewis, 2012, p.284). It allowed for face-to-face contact between these two populations as the Indigenous trappers were regularly interacting with traders and visiting trading posts (Carlos & Lewis, 2012, p.278).

One of these ideas was the practice of agriculture (Gaetano, 2011, p.56). Although agriculture was present in the “New World” before the time of European contact, the settler’s presence likely influenced those groups who were still mainly hunter-gatherers to depend more intensely on the practice of agriculture (Inhorn & Brown, 1990, p.91). Pressures from the European populations descending upon the Indigenous peoples may have confined groups to smaller areas increasing sedentism and possibly strengthening the appeal of agriculture (Gaetano, 2011, p.56). A result of agriculture was less diversity in the diet of these groups, often resulting in malnutrition because one food cannot provide all of the necessary nutrients needed for a healthy diet (Gaetano, 2011, p.56)(Inhorn & Brown, 1990, p.94). This decrease in general health increased the ability of infectious diseases to procure a host and then spread to others suffering from some level of malnutrition in the same group (Gaetano, 2011, p.56). Case studies, referenced by Inhorn and Brown, demonstrate an increase in contraction of infectious diseases between the times of hunter-gatherer populations and early agriculturalists (1990, p.94). Another transformative notion that came with the arrival of the Europeans was that of a