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Differential visibility of treponemal disease in pre-Columbian stratified societies: does rank matter?
- Source :
-
American journal of physical anthropology [Am J Phys Anthropol] 2011 Feb; Vol. 144 (2), pp. 185-95. Date of Electronic Publication: 2010 Aug 25. - Publication Year :
- 2011
-
Abstract
- Treponemal disease is known to be associated with the compromised community health of permanent village settlement. This association explains its high visibility in the village-based, arguably chiefdom level, agriculturalist societies of late prehistoric (AD 1300-1600) North America. Within chiefdom-level societies, health differences have often been demonstrated between mortuary-defined "elite" and "nonelite" individuals. This theoretically should predict status-based differences in treponemal disease visibility. The prediction is tested in a five-site osteological sample (N = 650) from the Dallas phase (AD 1300-1550), a simple mortuary-defined two-tiered presumptive chiefdom level maize agriculturalist socioeconomic context from lower east Tennessee. The Dallas phase results affirm a general pre-Colombian North American pattern of no sex differences and display comparable adult to subadult frequencies. The study also reveals that given a sufficient sample size, "elites" do indeed exhibit a significantly lower frequency of tertiary stage treponemal disease. This can be attributed to better baseline health, which has been previously demonstrated in this sample. It may also be affected by the mortuary inclusion of achieved status individuals whose good health may have facilitated sociopolitical advancement. Another pattern that emerged is an apparent young adult age bias in disease visibility. This suggests that tertiary treponemal disease morbidity may either directly or synergistically factor in early adult age at death. Future research will address the veracity of this association.<br /> (2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)
- Subjects :
- Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Child
Child, Preschool
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Paleopathology
Social Class
Statistics, Nonparametric
Tennessee
Treponemal Infections pathology
Bone and Bones pathology
Indians, North American ethnology
Indians, North American statistics & numerical data
Treponemal Infections epidemiology
Treponemal Infections ethnology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1096-8644
- Volume :
- 144
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- American journal of physical anthropology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 20740660
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.21381