Building a New Biocultural Synthesis: Political-Economic Perspectives on Human Biology

9. Unequal in Death as in Life: A Sociopolitical Analysis of the 1813 Mexico City Typhus Epidemic

Chapter 9 Unequal in Death as in Life: A Sociopolitical Analysis of the 1813 Mexico City Typhus Epidemic Lourdes Marquez Morfin Following the inherited influences of European and North American scientific traditions, Mexican physical anthropology was initially highly descriptive and deterministic. Until the 1960s the main goals of analysis of contemporary and past human biologies was to compare and classify. By the end ofthe 1960s this approach had radically changed for some. At the same time that physical anthropologists in North America were turning toward ecological studies, researchers in Mexico, especially the teachers and students from the Escuela de Antropologia de Mexico, began to adopt a Marxist perspective. In place ofprior descriptive and deterministic approaches, these new studies began to emphasize how humans are social beings with biologies imbedded in social, political, economic, and ideological structures, as well as physical environments and genetic structures (Dickinson and Murguia 1982; Pefia 1982; Sandoval 1982). As a result of this movement, Mexican physical anthropologists participated with cultural anthropologists in a critical discussion on the objectives of physical anthropology and the relevance of general anthropological concepts to their work. As part of this theoretical perspective, several bioanthropologists began to explore the biological consequences ofurbanization, particularly among Native Mexican populations (see Murguia 1981). Following this theme, I initiated studies of patterns of health and illness among distinct ethnic groups in Mexico City in the nineteenth century in relationship to sociopolitical and economic conditions (Marquez 1984). As an example of this approach, in this chapter I focus on the Mexico City typhus epidemic of 1813.I Specific questions addressed concern the spatial distribution of 229 230 Building a New Biocultural Synthesis ethnic groups and deaths in relationship to sanitary conditions and public health policies (Marquez 1984). Epidemics are revealing subjects for bioanthropological investigation because they present opportunities to evaluate the determinants and conditioning factors that govern who gets sick and who recovers. Following Frenk et al. (1994, 31), this study relies upon a model of health that considers four basic determinate levels: (1) a systemic level of population, genome, environment, and social organization; (2) a societal level, including structural determinants ofsocial stratification, occupational structure, and redistribution mechanisms; (3) an institutional/household level that includes more proximate factors such as working conditions, living conditions , life-style, and health-care systems; and (4) the individual level of health status. The perspective of the study might best be called social epidemiological in that the focus is on the interrelation of social, economic, and political factors in determining the expression and rate of disease (i.e., morbidity rate), and the number of deaths due to that disease (i.e., lethality rate: the percentage of sick people who die). Material and Methods The primary sources upon which this study is based are located in the historical archives ofMexico City.2 I used the census of 1811 as a basis for the socioeconomic research. Parochial registers were used to obtain information on baptisms, deaths, and marriages for the period from 1800 to 1839 (fig. 1). The morbidity and mortality rates of 1813, in particular, were obtained for each one ofthe thirty-two wards ofthe civil jurisdiction. Lists ofsick and dead people during the epidemic, which were made by order of the city government in 1813, were used to construct mortality and lethality rates. Maps pertaining to the distribution ofsewage systems, drains, pavement types, and garbage collection provided information on the geography of sanitary conditions. The narratives of people of the period were used in order to gain a sense of the atmosphere and the conditions of life ofthe inhabitants of the city (map 1). The City and Its Inhabitants. During the first half of the nineteenth century , Mexico City was one ofthe most heavily populated cities ofthe continent . Nearly 165,000 people ofdifferent ethnic groups-Spaniards, Indians , Creoles, mestizos, and mulattos-lived there (Humboldt 1984). Unequal in Death as in Life 231 t A H. SAN JUAN DE OIOS. a .H. SAN LAZARO. • H. SAN HIPOLITO. H H. SAN PABLO. C H. SAN ANDRES. I H. DE POBAES. D TERCEROS DE SN.FR_CISCQ· .t H. REAl.. DE INDIOS. E H. LA SANTISIMA. K H· DE JESUS. , H. DEL OI~INO SAl.'JAOOR. L H' CASA DE NIf«)S EXPOSITOs• • H: :~::~~~~ • - CASA DE NI;;OS EXPOSITOS Map 1. Mexico City wards and locations of hospitals, 1813 Increasingly, these groups were less distinguished by their "racial" origins and more by their social...