Disease in Micronesia: a Historical Survey

Hezel, Francis X. (2010). "Disease in Micronesia: a Historical Survey". Pacific Health Dialog. 16 1 (1): 11–25. ISSN 1015-7867.

• Has attachment: File:5NWFXFB5.pdf

Abstract: Micronesia is an elastic term as it is used for the islands in the Western Pacific just north of the equator. In this article we will be using the term to refer principally to Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). All these islands have a history of political association with the US that dates back at least to the end of the Second World War. European and American influence in the area reaches much further back than that-to the midnineteenth century, at least, when American whaleships and other vessels began making regular stopovers for rest and refreshment, and when American Congregationalist missionaries first found an audience for their message. In truth, we know little about the burden of disease in the islands before contact with the West other than what little can be inferred from prehistoric human remains and genealogies and what the earliest visitors saw and recorded. Life for Pacific Islanders everywhere may well have been "nasty, short and brutish," as Hobbes suggests it was for his European ancestors. This we do not know. But we do know that sustained Western contact, especially during the last two centuries, impacted greatly on health conditions in the islands, both for good and for bad.

Extra details:

PMID: 20968233
QID: Q85242391
MAG: 2411634857
CorpusID: 40239891
OpenAlex: W2411634857