Epidemics take place because human societies expect them and in this anticipation they adopt disturbed patterns of behaviour, disorder and violence that are dictated by fear. This behaviour leaves its traces in the biological, historical and iconographic archives, which the anthropologist can investigate in a diachronic manner. The interpretation of these patterns of social behaviour, over time and in relation to place, offers tools for investigating the present, even at global level (according

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... to the formula of Geerz) enabling an exploration of how biological and cultural variables affect the probabilities of falling ill and dying.