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(sorry if this came up already, although I did check) The papers are full of reports on a study of the remains of Black Death victims, and the study's conclusion that the plague was spread by air and not by rats. And all the reports say that the overwhelming majority of victims were poor, and that they typically showed signs of malnutrition and brutal over-work. On the one hand these findings would seem to me mean an end to the standard conclusion: "gee, if only they'd known more about hygiene" and it's slightly more progressive version "gee, if only there had been less inequality there'd have been fewer rats to carry it." Instead, the new conclusion would seem to have to be a more general version of the last, i.e. "if there had been less poverty and inequality far fewer people would have been susceptible to the disease." Which only reinforces what we already know about the correlation between health and social conditions. A recent example of that correlation is in this article, found coincidentally when googling for Black Death: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gregory-seal-livingston/the-new-black-death_b_3541862.html (Although his political conclusion is a crock (pun intended). Below are other quotes from reports on the new study. While the correlation itself is not new, it does seem to me that its reappearance in a study of an illness on the scale of the Black Death makes it easier to remind people of the similarly enormous death toll that climate change is getting ready to exact -- again, very disproportionately among the poor and oppressed. Excerpts: "These were, by and large, poor people. Many of the skeletons showed signs of malnutrition consistent with the "Great Famine" that struck Europe 30 years before the Black Death. Many had back injuries suggesting lives of hard labor. One man became a vegetarian late in life, indicating he may have entered an order of monks." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/30/london-skeletons-crossrail-black-death_n_5058845.html "The poor health hints at how easily the plague swept across the continent. The disease was pneumonic - not bubonic<http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/mar/29/black-death-not-spread-rat-fleas-london-plague> - meaning that coughing and sneezing likely spread the sickness. Then rampant malnutrition perhaps widened its swath... "Their research also provided additional information about 14th century Londoners. Roughly 40 percent<http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/see-video-black-death-victims-unearthed-by-london-rail-tunnelers-1442539> of the skeletons belonged to people who grew up outside of London -- even as far as Scotland -- suggesting migratory patterns similar to today. London has always been a big draw. "Almost all of them had back damage and strain, which evinces heavy manual labor. "So while the findings debunk bubonic plague common-knowledge, the AP's Jill Lawless <http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/london-skeletons-reveal-secrets-black-death-23114929>notes that they affirm one Middle Ages adage: life then was nasty, brutish and short." http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/03/31/everything-you-know-about-the-black-death-is-wrong-say-the-bones/ ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu Set your options at: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
