These important essays address the biological consequences of the arrival of Europeans in the New World and on the lifeways of native populations following contact in the late 16th century. Moving away from monocausal explanations of population change, they maintain that disease should be viewed as only a facet of a complex problem and that issues relating to diet, nutrition, activity, the work environment, and social and political change are equally important.
The result of a 20-year project directed by the editor, this work involved a team of scientists who explicitly addressed their research to the study of an extensive series of human remains. No comparable body of information currently exists for any other area of the New World.
