Skeletal biology of the Taino: a preliminary report
01 Sep 1987-International Journal of Anthropology (Springer Science and Business Media LLC)-Vol. 2, Iss: 3, pp 247-254
TL;DR: The minimum number of individuals, sex, age, stature, and morphologic and morphometric characters were determined and dental wear and pathology of cranial and post-cranial bones were also recorded.
Abstract: Preliminary data on the skeletal biology of 78 Taino skeletons belonging to Juan Dolio, an archaeological site of the Maguana province, 80 Km. east of S. Domingo, are presented. The minimum number of individuals, sex, age, stature, and morphologic and morphometric characters were determined. Dental wear and pathology of cranial and post-cranial bones were also recorded.
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TL;DR: Predictors of developmental dysplasia of the hip are breech presentation, positive family history, and gender (female), and certain HLA A, B, and D types demonstrate an increase in DDH, both in the northern and southern hemispheres, and swaddling is strongly associated with DDH.
Abstract: The etiology of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is unknown. There are many insights, however, from epidemiologic/demographic information. A systematic medical literature review regarding DDH was performed. There is a predominance of left-sided (64.0%) and unilateral disease (63.4%). The incidence per 1000 live births ranges from 0.06 in Africans in Africa to 76.1 in Native Americans. There is significant variability in incidence within each racial group by geographic location. The incidence of clinical neonatal hip instability at birth ranges from 0.4 in Africans to 61.7 in Polish Caucasians. Predictors of DDH are breech presentation, positive family history, and gender (female). Children born premature, with low birth weights, or to multifetal pregnancies are somewhat protected from DDH. Certain HLA A, B, and D types demonstrate an increase in DDH. Chromosome 17q21 is strongly associated with DDH. Ligamentous laxity and abnormalities in collagen metabolism, estrogen metabolism, and pregnancy-associated pelvic instability are well-described associations with DDH. Many studies demonstrate an increase of DDH in the winter, both in the northern and southern hemispheres. Swaddling is strongly associated with DDH. Amniocentesis, premature labor, and massive radiation exposure may increase the risk of DDH. Associated conditions are congenital muscular torticollis and congenital foot deformities. The opposite hip is frequently abnormal when using rigorous radiographic assessments. The role of acetabular dysplasia and adult hip osteoarthritis is complex. Archeological studies demonstrate that the epidemiology of DDH may be changing.
234 citations
Cites background from "Skeletal biology of the Taino: a pr..."
...In 102 Taino skeletons dated from the late 15th century found at Juan Dolio, Maguana, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic [432], 5 cases of DDH were noted....
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...[432] 1987 Maguana, Santo Domingo late 15th century 3 2 5 108 46....
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used human dental calculus from the pre-Columbian insular Caribbean (dating to ca. 350 B.C. to A.D. 1600) to identify important plant foods in the diet and assess potential dietary differences related to age or sex.
127 citations
TL;DR: A range of studies on the biological impact of European colonization of the Americas on native populations show that although rapid population loss and extinction occurred in some areas, many groups survived and accommodated new and challenging circumstances, and indicate that there are common elements to native response to contact with Europeans, but population and regional changes were shaped by localized factors.
Abstract: The commemoration of the Columbian quincentenary played an important role in stimulating new research on the biological effects of the arrival of Europeans on Native American groups throughout the New World. Although these discussions have involved many disciplines, physical anthropology has been underrepresented until recently. This article reviews a range of studies on the biological impact of European colonization of the Americas on native populations. Historical sources, mission and civil records, archaeological information, and human skeletal remains have provided a fund of data that are being used to document and interpret native health and well-being after 1492. Osteological investigations reveal that before contact, native populations were not living in a pristine, disease-free environment. Moreover, prehistoric populations experienced occasional eruptions of social conflict and violence, patterns of which are similar to what has been documented in contemporary small-scale societies. Archaeological, historical, and bioarchaeological studies provide compelling evidence that the arrival of Europeans did not occasion a sudden pandemic of smallpox in the early sixteenth century. Rather, epidemic disease in the contact era was a patchwork affair, striking some populations and not others at various times. Regionally based bioarchaeological investigations have disclosed new details about the contact period in the Americas and elsewhere (e.g., Polynesia), particularly in regard to variability in physiological stress, health status, diet and nutritional quality, and activity patterns. These studies show that although rapid population loss and extinction occurred in some areas, many groups survived and accommodated new and challenging circumstances. These findings also indicate that there are common elements to native response to contact with Europeans, but population and regional changes were shaped by localized factors. The demographic resurgence and population recovery during the twentieth century illustrates that Native Americans are a vital part of today's human biological landscape in the western hemisphere. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
107 citations
University of Vienna1, University of Coimbra2, Harvard University3, Broad Institute4, Pompeu Fabra University5, Pennsylvania State University6, Howard Hughes Medical Institute7, University of Granada8, University of California, Berkeley9, University of Porto10, University of Havana11, American Museum of Natural History12, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán13, Sapienza University of Rome14, Northwest African American Museum15, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo16, University of Los Andes17, College of The Bahamas18, Florida Museum of Natural History19
TL;DR: High mobility and inter-island connectivity throughout the Ceramic Age as reflected in relatives buried ~75 kilometers apart in Hispaniola and low genetic differentiation across many Caribbean islands, albeit with subtle population structure distinguishing the Bahamian islands from the rest of the Caribbean and from each other, and long-term population continuity in southeastern coastal Hispaniola differentiating this region from the remainder of the island.
Abstract: Humans settled the Caribbean ~6,000 years ago, with intensified agriculture and ceramic use marking a shift from the Archaic Age to the Ceramic Age ~2,500 years ago. To shed new light on the history of Caribbean people, we report genome-wide data from 184 individuals predating European contact from The Bahamas, Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Curacao, and northwestern Venezuela. A largely homogeneous ceramic-using population most likely originating in northeastern South America and related to present-day Arawak-speaking groups moved throughout the Caribbean at least 1,800 years ago, spreading ancestry that is still detected in parts of the region today. These people eventually almost entirely replaced Archaic-related lineages in Hispaniola but not in northwestern Cuba, where unadmixed Archaic-related ancestry persisted into the last millennium. We document high mobility and inter-island connectivity throughout the Ceramic Age as reflected in relatives buried ~75 kilometers apart in Hispaniola and low genetic differentiation across many Caribbean islands, albeit with subtle population structure distinguishing the Bahamian islands we studied from the rest of the Caribbean and from each other, and long-term population continuity in southeastern coastal Hispaniola differentiating this region from the rest of the island. Ceramic-associated people avoided close kin unions despite limited mate pools reflecting low effective population sizes (2Ne=1000-2000) even at sites on the large Caribbean islands. While census population sizes can be an order of magnitude larger than effective population sizes, pan-Caribbean population size estimates of hundreds of thousands are likely too large. Transitions in pottery styles show no evidence of being driven by waves of migration of new people from mainland South America; instead, they more likely reflect the spread of ideas and people within an interconnected Caribbean world.
49 citations
Cites background from "Skeletal biology of the Taino: a pr..."
...A large number of skeletal remains uncovered at the site during excavations in 1974 reportedly date predominantly to the late 15th century (Veloz Maggiolo 1972; Drusini et al. 1987)....
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...Further analysis of the skeletal assemblage yielded an estimated minimum number of individuals of 78 persons, of which 31 were adult males, 29 were adult females, 18 were individuals of unknown sex, and 11 were juveniles (Veloz Maggiolo 1972; Drusini et al. 1987)....
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...As at Boca del Soco, cranial deformation was common (Drusini et al. 1987)....
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TL;DR: The skeletal criteria, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and risk factors of developmental dysplasia of the hip are discussed and the clinical and prehistoric prevalence of DDH among indigenous populations of North America are calculated and discussed within a biocultural perspective.
Abstract: Objectives
Clinical prevalence of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) is high among modern indigenous populations of North America, yet no systematic study of the paleoepidemiology of this group exists. This study discusses the skeletal criteria, epidemiology, pathophysiology, and risk factors of DDH. A range of cases of DDH from an archaeological Native American population are described and the clinical and prehistoric prevalence of DDH among indigenous populations of North America are calculated and discussed within a biocultural perspective.
Methods
Pelves of 390 adults from the Late Prehistoric (1490 B.P. ± 70) Buffalo site, West Virginia, were examined for DDH. Morphology of true and false acetabula was classified and other changes of the pelvis, lower limb, and spine were noted along with cranial deformation, providing evidence of infant restriction. Prevalence of DDH among living and archaeological indigenous peoples of North America were calculated and compared. Cranial deformation was assessed as evidence for swaddling.
Results
DDH was identified in 18 adults from Buffalo, resulting in a minimum prevalence of 46.15 per 1,000, within the range reported in modern indigenous groups in North America. Most, but not all, of the DDH cases were associated with cranial deformation, but not all cases of cranial deformation were associated with DDH.
Conclusions
The etiology of DDH suggests that components of both genetic predisposition and swaddling practices have combined to create a high-risk environment for the development of DDH, contributing to high prevalence within archaeological populations, like Buffalo, and modern Indigenous groups of North America. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 27:116–128, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
26 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: This book provides essential text and materials on bone pathology, which will improve the diagnostic ability of those interested in human dry bone pathology and provides time depth to the understanding of the effect of disease on past human populations.
Abstract: "Identification of Pathological Conditions in Human Skeletal Remains" provides an integrated and comprehensive treatment of pathological conditions that affect the human skeleton. There is much that ancient skeletal remains can reveal to the modern orthopaedist, pathologist, forensic anthropologist, and radiologist about the skeletal manifestations of diseases that are rarely encountered in modern medical practice. Beautifully illustrated with over 1,100 photographs and drawings, this book provides essential text and materials on bone pathology, which will improve the diagnostic ability of those interested in human dry bone pathology. It also provides time depth to our understanding of the effect of disease on past human populations. Key features include: comprehensive review of skeletal diseases encountered in archeological human remains; more than 1100 photographs and line drawings illustrating skeletal disease including both microscopic and gross features; based on extensive research on skeletal paleopathology in many countries for over 35 years; and a review of important theoretical issues in interpreting evidence of skeletal disease in archeological human populations.
2,234 citations
TL;DR: Samples of modern and prehistoric hunger-gatherers and agriculturalists are used to test the hypothesis that there are systematic differences in patterns of tooth wear related to major differences in subsistence and food preparation.
Abstract: Tooth wear records valuable information on diet and methods of food preparation in prehistoric populations or extinct species. In this study, samples of modern and prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists are used to test the hypothesis that there are systematic differences in patterns of tooth wear related to major differences in subsistence and food preparation. Flatness of molar wear is compared for five groups of hunter-gatherers (N = 298) and five groups of early agriculturalists (N = 365). Hunter-gather- ers are predicted to develop flatter molar wear due to the mastication of tough and fibrous foods, whereas agriculturalists should develop oblique molar wear due to an increase in the proportion of ground and prepared food in the diet. A method is presented for the quantitative measurement and analysis of flatness of molar wear. Comparisons of wear plane angle are made between teeth matched for the same stage of occlusal surface wear, thus standardizing all groups to the same rate of wear. Agriculturalists develop highly angled occlusal wear planes on the entire molar dentition. Their wear plane angles tend to exceed hunter-gatherers by about 10" in advanced wear. Wear plane angles are similar within subsistence divisions despite regional differences in particular foods. This approach can be used to provide supporting evidence of change in human subsistence and to test dietary hypotheses in hominoid evolution. Tooth wear is one skeletal feature that pre- serves direct evidence of the masticatory be- havior of mammals. Mastication is inti- mately related to diet, and patterns of tooth wear can be used to make inferences about diet in prehistoric populations and extinct
887 citations
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TL;DR: Animal Bones in ArchaeologyBook of Notes and Drawings for Beginners.
Abstract: Animal Bones in Archaeology Book of Notes and Drawings for Beginners. By Michael L. Ryder. (Mammal Society Handbooks.) Pp. xxiv + 65. (Blackwell (Scientific): Oxford and Edinburgh. Published for the Mammal Society, 1969.) 17s.
732 citations
TL;DR: This study showed significant differences in type and degree of wear among the three groups as well as differences between sexes within each population, and a positive correlation between tooth wear and cultural factors was found.
Abstract: Among primitive peoples dental attrition appears to be a natural phenomenon. Often the degrees and kinds of tooth wear vary from population to population. This variability is possibly related to certain material aspects of culture such as diet, food preparation techniques and tool usage. In order to learn more about these relationships, extensive cross cultural comparisons must be made.
This paper reports on a study of dental attrition among skeletal remains of North American Indians from three areas: California, the Southwest and the Valley of Mexico. A method of comparing worn teeth of these populations was devised so several characteristics of the teeth and supporting bone could be examined by population. This study showed significant differences in type and degree of wear among the three groups as well as differences between sexes within each population.
A positive correlation between tooth wear and cultural factors was found. Dietary specialization and division of labor appear to be responsible for the degree and type of wear found in this sample. Further studies of this type are planned to expand the sample size and, if the new data support these correlations, valuable information about human–environmental relationships can be gained.
641 citations