precontact

European obstetrical customs were very reminiscent of those practiced in precontact Mexico.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Both Spanish and Mesoamerican medicine used the Hot-Cold dichotomy in precontact and colonial times to diagnose and treat illnesses, so it is difficult to untangle the origins of these folk practices today. 7 As we will see in this study, however, the humoral medicine that Europeans brought to the New World provided a logical and simple framework on which both indigenous and popular Spanish curing practices could be hung.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Moderation — undoubtedly the most important ideal guiding personal behavior in precontact society — was defined in terms of how often, not how much.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Large urban populations also entailed increasing social complexity, creating inequalities of wealth and access to basic resources. 6 Temporal trends in precontact Central Mexico, with its long history as the center of Mesoamerican civilization, seem to support this hypothesis.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Those well-versed in precontact medicine say that the Nahuas were familiar with intermittent fevers and came to distinguish them by their pattern of onset and recurrence. 66

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

In contrast to the social prohibitions that limited its availability in precontact times, colonial authorities did not affix any particular social meanings to its use, thus chocolate consumption in New Spain was a daily practice for most social groups.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Florentine Codex: an encyclopedia of Nahua culture and life in precontact Mexico, composed under the auspices of Fray Bernardo de Sahagún during the sixteenth century.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Only five animals are known to have been domesticated in precontact America: the turkey in Mesoamerica, the guinea pig and llama/alpaca in the Andes, the Muscovy duck in tropical South America, and the dog throughout both continents.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

Geography and climate, as we have already seen, were critical factors in a locale's salubrity, but lifestyle — and especially the change from a precontact lifestyle to one modified by Spanish customs — is mentioned frequently as well.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008

In Chapter 1, I examine the kinds of diseases and ailments people suffered from in Mexico, beginning with precontact Mesoamerica on the eve of the Spanish Conquest up to roughly the middle of the nineteenth century.

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008