The use of archives in the study of microevolution: changing demography and epidemiology in Escazú, Costa Rica

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511542534.003

2 - The use of archives in the study of microevolution: changing demography and epidemiology in Escazú, Costa Rica

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 August 2009

Lorena Madrigal

Edited by

D. Ann Herring and

Alan C. Swedlund

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Lorena Madrigal: Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, College of Arts and Sciences, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue SOC 107, Tampa, FL 33620, USA
D. Ann Herring: Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
Alan C. Swedlund: Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Summary

Introduction

Archival data constitute a rich source of information for microevolutionary studies, a primary focus of human biology and biological anthropology research. Particularly important is that, by virtue of their ubiquity, archives allow researchers to study changes in demography and epidemiology in multiple cultures and time settings. Thus, it is possible to compare microevolutionary processes across cultures at different time periods, and across time within a group. For example, Scott and Duncan (2001) look at the behavior of different epidemics throughout Europe, and at different time periods. Scott and Duncan also (1998) provide a cross-cultural review of the impact of disease on human demography.

Several archival approaches to microevolutionary studies are possible, all of them of interest, and all of them depending on the data available. However, in the best of situations, it could be possible to study mortality and fertility through death and birth/baptism archives, and population structure and gene flow through marriage records. This chapter presents a case study of changes in demography and epidemiology in the historical population of Escazú, Costa Rica, through archival research, which incorporates the mortality, birth, and marriage patterns of the population.

The specific question addressed about mortality is whether it had a seasonal distribution, as has been described in similar human populations.

Type: Chapter
Information: Human Biologists in the Archives
Demography, Health, Nutrition and Genetics in Historical Populations
, pp. 11 - 31

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511542534.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2002

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