Sex and the agricultural transition: Dental health among early agricultural females

This project analyzed dentition from a sample (n =142) of Early Agricultural period skeletons (B.C. 1600-200 A.D.) from the site of La Playa (SON F:10:3), Sonora, Mexico. Data was collected on pathology rates for dental caries and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) to test the hypothesis that hormone-fluctuations associated with pregnancy increase dental pathology in females. Males and females were not found to have significant differences in caries rates. However, statistically significant differences in AMTL were found with females exhibiting more tooth loss than males ( p=.022). When compared across age categories, reproductive-age females had substantial increases in AMTL compared to age-matched males; This pattern suggests that differences in dental health may be sex-based. With decreased birth-spacing associated with sedentism and agriculture, female oral health suffers. Findings from this study, with research from clinical studies on dental health and pregnancy, provide insight into the history of sex-differences in oral pathology and women\u27s health

Violence and Postmortem Signaling in Early Farming Communities of the Sonoran Desert: An Expanded Taphonomic Approach

Bioarchaeological analyses of violence largely fail to consider the bio-cultural complexity that result from hostility. Here, we utilize an expanded definition of burial taphonomy to test if individuals exhibiting evidence for violence differed in other identifiable ways in early farming communities from the Sonoran Desert, circa 2,000-4,000 ybp. A variable matrix is constructed to conduct a more inclusive analysis considering demographic variables, decomposition, taphonomy, health status, and mortuary treatment. We postulate that although numerous community members experienced violence during a time of known subsistence intensification, specific individuals were selected for differential treatment as a form of postmortem signaling

Beaten Down and Worked to the Bone: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Women and Violence in the Ancient Southwest

The study of violence is generally androcentric in its focus, with emphasis on men and their pursuit of resources, power, and prestige. Neglected is the role and motivations of the women in violence, and this is especially true in raiding. With the analysis of over sixty Ancestral Pueblo human remains from La Plata Valley as a case study, this study is focused on the relationship between the women in the culture and interpersonal violence. The basic questions that this project addresses are: (1) Does the pattern of trauma vary and are there certain individuals who are at more risk within the culture (i.e., appear “beaten down”)? (2) Are there certain portions of the culture that appear to have worked harder during their lifetime (i.e., been “worked to the bone”)? (3) What can the differential patterning of pathology, trauma, and early death across the population reveal regarding the roles of men and women in raiding societies? In order to answer these questions several categories were evaluated according to age and sex. These factors include non-lethal injury (especially trauma to the head), mortuary status (e.g., burial position and grave goods), and muscular stress markers or enthesopathies. The results of this analysis present a picture of inequality within the La Plata population with obvious morbidity differences between women of varying status. The results of this study found that were two groups of women living in La Plata. The local women who lacked cranial trauma, received a culturally appropriate burial, and showed little evidence of muscular stress markers. The women that may have been obtained from raids had cranial trauma, were thrown haphazardly into abandoned pits, and possessed clear signs of having worked hard throughout their lives. This study looked closely at the relationship between women, work, and violence, and results suggest that the local women living at La Plata may have been attempting to reduce their own morbidity risks by both sanctioning and supporting the subordination of captive women obtained in raiding activities. The captive women (having been beaten and worked to the bone) benefited both the local men and women at La Plata. This study shows the complex ways that structural violence works, the potential for gender based functional differences in violent behaviors, and the ways that violence becomes culturally normalized