Citation

Henige D. History Compass 2008; 6(1): 183-206.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1478-0542.2007.00490.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The population levels of the newly discovered western hemisphere at contact have been an object of observers’ attention since the first voyage of Columbus. The numbers that have been developed over time reflected the environments in which they evolved – sometimes they were very high and sometimes very low. The latest of these cycles, dating from the 1940s and still in vogue, reflects the highest numbers, as well as the most elaborate methodology, ever applied to the problem. The results have been estimates that are many times most of those previously advanced, and the mechanism to explain this substantially greater decline has been epidemic European diseases, to which the American Indians had no resistance. The High Counters’ methodology involves taking relatively small numbers in the record and multiplying these many times over to reach new numbers that are ten to twenty times as large. A major component of this practice is to presume that the epidemics in question spread across the hemisphere even before Europeans could assess their impact. For this hypothesis, and for several other elements of the exercise, there is no evidence whatever. Despite this handicap, the new cadres of numbers have themselves spread far and wide and can be found in a variety of sources aimed at various audiences.