The peninsula of Yucatan: medical, biological, meteorological and sociological studies

Shattuck, George Cheever; Bequaert, Joseph C. (Joseph Charles)

book chapter

The peninsula of Yucatan: medical, biological, meteorological and sociological studies

Carnegie Institution of Washington • Washington • Published In 1933 • Pages:

By: Shattuck, George Cheever, Bequaert, Joseph C. (Joseph Charles), Yucatan Medical Expeditions, 1929-1931.

Abstract
The data contained in this source are the composite results of the First, Second and Third Yucatan Medical Expeditions, organized at the instigation of the Carnegie Institution of Washington by the Department of Tropical Medicine of Harvard University. Although primary emphasis is on the study of disease in the State of Yucatan there is also a great deal of other ethnographic information to be found. The first section processed covers geography and geology, flora and fauna, native medicines, domestic animals, water supplies, and general population statistics. The second portion processed presents information on the Mayan population and its distribution, ethnic subgroups, racial affinities, language, clothing, the Mayan medicine man, childbirth customs, food, agriculture, and religion. The remaining section contains information on various diseases found in the Yucatan area, and their treatment at clinics set up by the Yucatan Medical Expedition in various Mayan villages. At the time of this field study Shattuck was assistant professor of tropical medicine at Harvard University Medical School. He was a member of the First and Second Expeditions but not the Third. The portion of Chapter 3 dealing with Mayan Midwifery was written by Miss Katheryn MacKay, R.N., while the section dealing with Parturition and Care of the Infant was written by Robert Redfield. Chapter 7 also contains a report by Miss MacKay on the Chichen Itza clinic.

Topography and geology

Fauna

Flora

Composition of population

Morbidity

Linguistic identification

Ethnic stratification