5 ms·
> More than a few of the men did end up needing treatment for syphilis, either for pre-existing problems or for ones picked up along the way from friendly Nativ
by Tao331 4y ago
> More than a few of the men did end up needing treatment for syphilis, either for pre-existing problems or for ones picked up along the way from friendly Native American women.
This struck me as odd. "What? How did syphilis get to this part of the Americas already?"
Apparently syphilis was already in the Americas prior to European contact. Two schools of thought are that either Europeans already had syphilis but mistook the diverse symptoms for other diseases, or that Columbus and crew brought it back.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_syphilis
- buildbot 4y agoYep, syphilis is a “new world” illness, not sure the trade for smallpox was worth it.
- thelock85 4y agoThe part that stuck out to me was “friendly”. A subtle insertion of language that at best alludes to some early 19th century frolicking, and at worst rewrites a history of sexual violence. In a fairly objective accounting of historical science (is that a term?), I’d like to see more evidence when suggesting cultural behavior, or just leave the descriptive language out and let the reader interpret.
- ars 4y ago> and at worst rewrites a history of sexual violence. Maybe not: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-clark-expedition-history https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/lewis-c... And entries from the journal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)#York_and_Native_Americans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_(explorer)#York_and_Nativ...
- andrewflnr 4y agoWow, that's even weirder.
- Tao331 4y agoFor most of the company it was an expedition. For York it was more like touring with Motley Crue.
- qiskit 4y ago[flagged]
- throwaway894345 4y ago[flagged]
- Tao331 4y agoPurportedly, some of these encounters were initiated by the natives as a means to transfer some benefit of manly prowess from the expedition. https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/anthropology/bar-room-banter-sex-on-the-lewis-and-clark-expedition https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/anthropology/bar-r... Though I do wonder how many "offered wives" were slaves of the tribe. We know that Sacagewea was a slave who was sold as a wife to a French trapper.
- oh_sigh 4y agoI don't know if "Offbeat Oregon" is actually an appropriate venue for "objective accounting of historical science" (never been written before per google, but I'm cool with it).
- vorpalhex 4y agoOutsiders have always been targets of sexual attraction.
- saghm 4y agoNot sure how accurate it was, but back in history class in school, syphillis was always used as an example of a disease that was brought to Europe from the Americas (as a converse to smallpox being brought over from Europe). We were told these were part of the so-called "Columbian exchange": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbian_exchange