>o effect on them.  Umm..  Hunter/gatherers throughout recorded time have
>>been especially weak to new bacterial and virus outbreaks.
>
>You know what happened to many HGs is they became weakened by processed
>foods.(haven't we all!)
>
>So when missionaries and others with processed food supplies came in, they
>began trading with HGs and selling them this awful food ...(sugar, salt,
>coffee, flour, biscuits, processed foods)
>
>Then the HGs became vitamin deficient.
>
>Many contracted diseases, such as tuberculosis.

These are all true statements, but the order is wrong.

The spread of epidemic disease occured much earlier than the
introduction
of neolithic foods.  In many cases, epidemic disease actually
_preceeded_
the first contact with western civilization!  For example, diseases
that arrived with Cortez and Pizzaro (in Central America) spread all
the
way into North America, far in advance of Western explorers.  In fact,
Pizzaro's conquest of the Incas was facilitated by the smallpox
epidemic
that preceeded him.  This was at a time when only a handful of ships
had
ever been to the New World -- long before the arrival of missionaries
and the introduction of cereal grains and domesticated animals.

The susceptability of native hunter gatherers to western disease is
generally attributed to their lack of population density (and lack of
domesticated animals, which are the source of most epidemic diseases)
and thus lack of exposure.

_Guns, Germs_ and Steel_ by Jared Diamond is an excellent reference
for this.

-Bruce