Rural Rickets: Vitamin D Deficiency in a Post-Medieval Farming Community from the Netherlands

ABSTRACT Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency as a result of limited exposure to sunlight and inadequate diet. In the 19 th century, rickets was endemic in most northern European cities. In post-Medieval Netherlands, rickets is documented in low frequencies in a few urban samples, but has not been studied in contemporaneous rural populations. Beemster is a rural farming community in the Netherlands that was established in the 17 th century upon drained land, with the Middenbeemster cemetery in use until 1866 AD. Ninety-five individuals from the ages of 32 weeks in utero to 15 years were examined for rickets in order to understand factors that can cause vitamin D deficiency in rural, non-industrialized populations. To identify rickets in the Beemster sample, ten features were scored, with bending deformities of the lower limb and one other feature, or at least three non-bending features, having to be present in order for diagnosis. Nine individuals (9.5%) had evidence of rickets-a high prevalence, especially for a rural community where ample sunlight was available. The two and three year old Beemster infants were most heavily affected with an age-specific prevalence of 30.4%. Two three-month-old infants also had rickets. Some of the affected may have developed rickets secondarily, as a result of a different illness, but cultural practices including prolonged swaddling, occlusive clothing, and keeping the young indoors, are suggested to have contributed to this high rickets prevalence. Dietary variables including poor weaning foods and common episodes of malnutrition may have also contributed to vitamin D deficiency. This study demonstrates the value of careful analysis of pathological conditions in subadults and highlights that rickets was not only a disease of cities, but affected populations that would appear to have been at low risk, because of maladaptive cultural practices

Fouilles sur le site précolombien de l'Anse à la Gourde (Saint-François, Guadeloupe)

Delpuech André, Hofman Corinne L., Hoogland Menno L.P. Fouilles sur le site précolombien de l'Anse à la Gourde (Saint-François, Guadeloupe). In: Journal de la Société des Américanistes. Tome 83, 1997. pp. 279-282

Gender-related vitamin D deficiency in a Dutch 19th century farming community

The most common cause of vitamin D deficiency is inadequate dermal exposure to sunlight. Residual rickets is nonadult vitamin D deficiency still evident in an adult individual, whereas osteomalacia occurs in adulthood. Previous research on the Beemster population, a 19th century rural community in the Netherlands, identified rickets in 30.4% of the nonadults between the ages of two and four years (n=7/23). Because the sex of these nonadults was not known it was not possible to determine if there were differences between boys and girls. To overcome this gap in our knowledge, the aim of this paper is to determine if there are gender related differences in vitamin D deficiency in the Beemster skeletal collection, based on adults with residual rickets and osteomalacia. Out of 200 adults (100 females; 100 males) no cases of osteomalacia were detected. However, there were 29 cases of residual rickets (14.5%), with 21 of those cases in females (21.0%; 21/100). A complex interplay of multiple factors is proposed to have affected vitamin D levels in nonadults, including sociocultural variables such as gender-based labour norms. This research highlights the importance of continuing to explore gender-based health differences in past populations

Getting rid of dichotomous sex estimations: why logistic regression should be preferred over discriminant function analysis

Bioarchaeolog

A Multi-Isotope Investigation of Human and Dog Mobility and Diet in the Pre-Colonial Antilles

The complex relationships between humans and dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) have a very deep and unique history. Dogs have accompanied humans as they colonised much of the world, and were introduced via human agency into the insular Caribbean where they became widespread throughout the Ceramic Age. It is likely that the dynamic interactions between humans, dogs, and their environments in the Caribbean were spatially, chronologically, and socially variable. However, almost no research has specifically addressed the nature, or potential variability, of human/dog interactions in this region. This study presents isotopic (strontium and carbon) evidence bearing on human and dog paleomobility and paleodietary patterns in the pre-colonial Caribbean. The isotope results illustrate a generally high degree of correspondence between human and dog dietary practices at all analysed sites but also slight differences in the relative importance of different dietary inputs. Striking parallels are also observed between the human and dog mobility patterns and shed light on broader networks of social interaction and exchange. Lastly, the paper addresses the possible utility and relevance of canine isotope data as proxies for inferring past human behaviours.Seventh Framework Programme (FP7)Archaeology of the America