Patterns of Association Between Oral Health Status and Subsistence: A Study of Aboriginal Skeletal Populations from the Tennessee Valley Area

The purpose of this study is to identify subsistence associated differences in caries, periodontal disease and attrition between two aboroginal skeletal samples from the Tennessee Valley area. The hunter/gather sample employed in this study dates from the Archaic period (6000-500 B.C.) and is composed of individuals from the Eva(6BN12), Cherry (84BN74) and Anderson (40WM9) sites. The Mississippian Dallas focus (1300-1500 A.D.) site of Toqua (40MR6) practiced maize agriculture. Contrasts in caries frequency, location on the tooth, and distribution along the tooth row were readily apparent. Cervical caries in the posterior tooth row characterized the Archaic sample. The pattern is attributed to the combined effects of food impaction and attrition exposing the vulnerable cervix to bacterially produced demineralyzed acids. The Mississippian sample is characterized not only by a greater caries frequency, but a wide range of locations on the tooth and in the tooth row. Attrition rates differ dramatically between the two samples. This is attributed to the difference in the amount of food processing undertaken between the two subsistence systems. Contrasting anterior to posterior wear gradients were not identified between the Archaic and Mississippian samples. It was hypothesized that in a varied physical environment, such as that inhabited by the Archaic sample, the selective pressure was to use the anterior teeth as a tool. Anterior tooth wear forms indicative of tooth use, differentiated the two samples. A unique wear form in the Mississippian sample was identified. Periodontal disease involvement between the two subsistence systems showed patterned differences. Bone loss and calculus accumulation are progressive in the Mississippian sample. The accumulation of oral debris concomitant with reduced rate of bone loss is characteristic of the Archaic sample. The about-face is attributed to the mediating influence of attrition in eliminating the sites of food impaction. Antemortem tooth loss, the ultimate consequence of each of the above mentioned processes, is the significant difference between the loss in the molars only. This higher rate of molar loss in the Mississippian sample is attributed to the combined effects of caries and periodontal disease

Major Questions about Teres Minor: The Pattern of Reactive Changes in a Precolumbian Human Skeletal Sample From Illinois

The ubiquitous presence of reactive changes at the insertion of a minor muscle of the rotator cuff on the proximal humerus (teres minor) is analyzed in an adult Late Woodland (AD 800–1150) period osteological sample (N = 43) from west-central Illinois (Schroeder Mounds, 11HE177). Fifty-seven percent left (20/35) and sixty-nine percent right humeri (25/36) have reactive change to the t. minor facet. There are no statistically significant differences by sex or side asymmetry. Reactive change generally co-associates with greater humeral robusticity. Besides a minor collaborative role in shoulder joint stability, teres minor has a limit range of movement as an abductor and external rotator of the arm. Injuries to the t. minor are exrememly rare in modern clinical contexts and only in athletes who engage in actvivites that utilize overhead arm movements. That is, the reactive change may be associated with particular arm movements or body posture which, in this pre-Columbian horticulturalist sample, may be related to activities for which there are no modern clinical correlates

Adult Foot and Ankle Trauma at Schroeder Mounds (11He177): A Late Woodland Period Site in Illinois

Foot and ankle trauma in adults may be accidental or caused by physical activities that increase the likelihood of injury. Little is known about the organization of labor or health of the presumed forager-farmers of the later Late Woodland (~AD 900-1150) period mortuary site of Schroeder Mounds (Henderson County, Illinois). In order to better understand the physical activities or hazards of the individuals from this site, thirty-seven adult skeletons preserving at least one essentially complete mid (metatarsals) and hind (tarsals) foot were examined for reactive changes that are consistent with traumatic injury. This data is compared to published reports from other Illinois Late Woodland sites. The study is comprised of 17 females, 14 males, and 6 skeletally unsexable adults. In the Schroeder Mounds sample, there were six cases of foot/ankle pathology (6/37, 13.5%), five of which (3/17, 17.6% females; 2/14, 14.3% males) are diagnostically traumatic injuries (5/37, 13.5%). A sixth case is a likely congenital foreshortening of a metatarsal (brachymetatarsia). There is no significant difference between the sexes in the frequency of ankle/foot trauma (p=1.000, Fisher’s test). However, given the small sample size, the results are tentative. The trauma pattern of the Schroeder mounds cases consists of the clinically infrequent tarsometatarsal (Lisfranc joint complex) high-energy misstep injuries, a vertical jump/fall (Pilon fracture), and stress (“march”) fractures of the metatarsal shafts. These injuries are consistent with a highly active and/or mobile community where trauma hazards are arguably equally experienced by both adult males and females

Subadult Growth Stunting at Schroeder Mounds (11He177): A Late Woodland Sample from Illinois

Constitutional growth delay in subadults may be caused by chronic illness, malnutrition, and/or undernutrition. Very little is known about the community health of the presumptive forager-farmers of the Late Woodland (~ AD 900-1150) period site of Schroeder Mounds (Henderson County, Illinois). In an effort to increase understanding of community health, the subadults (N=15) were examined by age-at-death for evidence of growth stunting as reflected in forelimb shortening. Crural and brachial indices were calculated for those subadults preserving measurable femora and tibiae and/or measurable humeri and radii. These indices were compared by age category to indices calculated from normal bone lengths taken from published clinical data. Stunting was evident for all ages-at-death in the Schroeder Mounds sample. The stunting was contextualized by assessing the presence/absence of potentially causative or synergistically related skeletally visible chronic health stress indicators (i.e., porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, linear enamel hypoplasia, periostosis). The results indicated that all subadults exhibited growth stunting regardless of the presence of the quantified health issues. This may suggest that stunting is potentially a free-standing osteological marker of developmental stress. Within Schroeder Mounds, stunting may ultimately be due to various environmental (e.g., harvest or resource shortfall) and cultural (e.g., weaning, child labor) factors

Personality profiles of cultures: aggregate personality traits

Personality profiles of cultures can be operationalized as the mean trait levels of culture members. College students from 51 cultures rated an individual from their country whom they knew well (N = 12, 156). Aggregate scores on Revised NEO Personality Inventory scales generalized across age and gender groups, approximated the individual-level Five-Factor Model, and correlated with aggregate self-report personality scores and other culture-level variables. Results were not attributable to national differences in economic development or to acquiescence. Geographical differences in scale variances and mean levels were replicated, with Europeans and Americans generally scoring higher in Extraversion than Asians and Africans. Findings support the rough scalar equivalence of NEO-PI-R factors and facets across cultures, and suggest that aggregate personality profiles provide insight into cultural differences

Tooth Size Changes in Prehistoric Tennessee Indians

Dental dimensions of three samples of prehistoric Tennessee Indians spanning almost 8,000 years were analyzed in order to isolate long-term size trends in the dentition of a localized series of aboriginal North Americans. Results indicate that the anterior dentition (incisors and canines) underwent a constant, gradual reduction, while the posterior dentition (molars and premolars) remained virtually the same size or even increased slightly for 7,000 years and then were reduced signifi­cantly with the shift to a predominantly food producing economy. The most likely explanation for these trends lies in changing patterns of natural selection, resulting from variations in attritional stress induced by change in subsistence and food preparation

Digital and Palmar Dermatoglyphic Patterns in Two Peruvian Quechua Populations

Digital and palmar dermatoglyphic patterns are analyzed and compared for 335 subjects from a Peruvian, central highland Quechua-speaking population and .343 subjects from an eastern Peruvian lowland Quechua-speaking population, all of whose ages range from 5 to 19 years. These two populations are probably descendants of the former Chanca tribes of the Peruvian Andes, and display no significant genetic differences in terms of ABO and Rh subgroups. Sex and hand-specific digital patterns, pattern intensity indices, maximum atd angles, C and D main lines, Cummins main line index, hypothenar patterns, thenar/I patterns and interdigital area II, III and IV patterns are compared. Lowland males and females have greater frequencies of whorls and fewer loops and arches in their first and fifth digits than their highland counterparts. Lowland males and females also have fewer proximal and ulnar endings and more radial endings in their C line terminations than the highland males and females. The right interdigital area III of lowland females shows a greater frequency of overall patterns (vestiges, loops and whorls) than that of the highland females

Nature over nurture: temperament personality and lifespan

Temperaments are often regarded as biologically based psychological tendencies with intrinsic paths of development. It is argued that this definition applies to the personality traits of the five-factor model. Evidence for the endogenous nature of traits is summarized from studies of behavior genetics, parent¿child relations, personality structure, animal personality, and the longitudinal stability of individual differences. New evidence for intrinsic maturation is offered from analyses of NEO Five-Factor Inventory scores for men and women age 14 and over in German, British, Spanish, Czech, and Turkish samples (N = 5,085). These data support strong conceptual links to child temperament despite modest empirical associations. The intrinsic maturation of personality is complemented by the culturally conditioned development of characteristic adaptations that express personality; interventions in human development are best addressed to these. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved

Universal features of personality traits from the observer’ s perspective: data from 50 cultures

To test hypotheses about the universality of personality traits, college students in 50 cultures identified an adult or college-age man or woman whom they knew well and rated the 11, 985 targets using the third-person version of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. Factor analyses within cultures showed that the normative American self-report structure was clearly replicated in most cultures, and was recognizable in all. Sex differences replicated earlier self-report results, with the most pronounced differences in Western cultures. Cross-sectional age differences for three factors followed the pattern identified in self-reports, with moderate rates of change during college age and very slow changes after age 40. With a few exceptions, these data support the hypothesis that features of personality traits are common to all human groups

National character does not reflect mean personality trait levels in 49 cultures

Most people hold beliefs about psychological characteristics typical of members of their own and others' cultures. These perceptions of national character may be generalizations from personal experience, or stereotypes with or without a “ kernel of truth." We obtained national character ratings from 49 cultures and compared them to average personality scores of culture members as assessed by observer ratings and self-reports. National character ratings appeared to be reliable and valid measures, but they did not converge with assessed personality traits. Perceptions of national character thus appear to be unfounded stereotypes that may serve the function of maintaining a national identity