Biodiversity Commons^™

Food, Parasites, And Epidemiological Transitions: A Broad Perspective, Karl Reinhard, Luis Fernando Ferreira, Françoise Bouchet, L. Sianto, J. M.F. Dutra, A. Iniguez, Daniela Leles, M. Le Bailley, Martín Horacio Fugassa, Elisa Pucu, Adauto Araújo

Karl Reinhard Publications

Pathoecology provides unique frameworks for understanding disease transmission in ancient populations. Analyses of Old and New World archaeological samples contribute empirically to our understanding of parasite infections. Combining archaeological and anthropological data, we gain insights about health, disease, and the way ancient people lived and interacted with each other and with their environments. Here we present Old and New World parasite evidence, emphasizing how such information reflects the different ways ancient populations exploited diverse environments and became infected with zoonotic parasites. It is clear that the most common intestinal helminthes (worm endoparasites) were already infecting ancient inhabitants of the New …