“From Smallpox to 1918 flu to Coronavirus: Viral Pandemics Past and Present” with Alan Swedlund

In an SAR online salon on May 5, Alan Swedlund, 1995-96 SAR Weatherhead Resident Scholar and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, examined viral pandemics past and present. From historic Smallpox outbreaks to 1918’s Spanish influenza to the modern-day Coronavirus, Swedlund – whose primary areas of expertise include the history of health and disease, epidemiology, demography, and the interrelation of culture and human health – contrasted these three pandemics, and the profound effects they had (or are having) on America.

Anthropologists study pandemics in all sorts of ways ranging from the genetic, to epidemiological and medical, to sociocultural perspectives. Pandemics are time-bounded events that punctuate and accentuate our relationship with infectious disease. In this online salon, Alan briefly compared three viral pandemics, two in the past and one in the present, focusing on North America: Smallpox in the 1600s, the “Spanish” flu of 1918-19, and the novel Coronavirus today, which is now causing widespread infection and thousands of deaths both at home and abroad. For discussion: How do they compare? What does each share with the others? What might we expect looking forward with Coronavirus?

Alan C. Swedlund, an SAR Weatherhead Resident Scholar in 1995-96, is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His primary areas of expertise include the history of health and disease, epidemiology, demography, and the interrelation of culture and human health. His research has focused on a diverse array of places and times, including early twentieth-century New England, the precontact Southwest, and contemporary indigenous populations in Yucatán. Swedlund is author or co-editor of eight books, most recently Beyond Germs: Native Depopulation in North America, co-edited with Catherine Cameron and Paul Kelton (University of Arizona Press, 2015).