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Past Human Populations (past + human_population)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Life Sciences	50%

Selected Abstracts

Diet, nutrition and femoral robusticity of hunter-gatherers in southern Patagonia: experiences and perspectives

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 2 2009
J. A. Suby
Abstract Dietary reconstructions through stable isotope studies are one of the most prominent tools for analysing the impact of nutritional and subsistence strategy transitions in the health of past human populations. In the last few years, some palaeopathological studies have been developed related to dietary models proposed for southern Patagonia. In the present work we study the femoral diaphyseal robusticity as an indicator of physical activity and health of a sample of hunter-gatherer individuals from southern Patagonia in relation to their diet, recorded by means of stable isotope values. We discuss the relationship between nutrition and the characteristics of bone structure, as well as the possible impact of pathologies as a source of variability in stable isotope values. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Porotic lesions in immature skeletons from Stara Torina, late medieval Serbia

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OSTEOARCHAEOLOGY, Issue 5 2008
M. Djuric
Abstract Porotic lesions of immature skeletons have been attracting scientific attention for more than a century. These changes have been documented worldwide and are considered to be one of the indicators of health and/or nutritional status of past human populations. These lesions have frequently been referred to as a nutritional stress indicator, a manifestation of iron-deficiency anaemia, and a condition caused by chronic infections. In this study, 327 immature skeletons from the medieval graveyard of Stara Torina (Serbia) were examined for macroscopic signs of four types of porotic lesions: cribra orbitalia, femoral cribra, humeral cribra, and porotic hyperostosis. Femoral cribra was observed in 83.25% of femora, humeral cribra in 58.46% of cases, cribra orbitalia in 46.12% of orbits, while porotic hyperostosis was recorded in only 2.94% of skulls. The majority of skeletons affected by cribra presented symmetrical lesions. Association between all types of cribra was recorded in 33.33% of skeletons. Historical data supported the hypothesis that the investigated population was exposed to frequent infections, especially parasitic ones, which led to the development of porotic bone lesions via several mechanisms: parasite-induced blood loss and diarrhoea (both iron and magnesium malabsorption) or anaemia as a hepcidin-mediated body adaptive response to infection. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Seasonal modulation of reproductive effort during early pregnancy in humans,

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Virginia J. Vitzthum
Life history theory predicts that early pregnancy presents a relatively low cost, uncontested opportunity for a woman to terminate investment in a current reproductive opportunity if a conceptus is of poor quality and/or maternal status or environmental conditions are not propitious for a successful birth. We tested this hypothesis in rural Bolivian women experiencing substantial seasonal variation in workload and food resources. Significant risk factors for early pregnancy loss (EPL) included agropastoralism versus other economic strategies, conception during the most arduous seasons versus other seasons, and increasing maternal age. Anovulation rate (AR) was higher during the most arduous seasons and in older women. Breastfeeding and indicators of social status and living conditions did not significantly influence either risk of EPL or AR. Averaged over the year, anovulation occurred in about 1/4 of the cycles and EPL occurred in about 1/3 of the conceptions. This is the first evidence of seasonality of EPL in a non-industrialized population, and the first to demonstrate a relationship between economic activities and EPL. These findings suggest that both anovulation and EPL are potential mechanisms for modulating reproductive effort; such "failures" may also be nonadaptive consequences of conditions hostile to a successful pregnancy. In either case, variation in EPL risk associated with different subsistence activities can be expected to influence fertility levels and birth seasonality in both contemporary and past human populations. These consequences of variability in the risk of EPL can impact efforts to understand the sources of variation in reproductive success. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Stature estimation in an early medieval (XI-XII c.) Polish population: Testing the accuracy of regression equations in a bioarcheological sample

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 1 2009
Giuseppe Vercellotti
Abstract Accurate stature estimation from skeletal remains can foster useful information on health and microevolutionary trends in past human populations. Stature can be estimated through the anatomical method and regression equations. The anatomical method (Fully: Ann Med Leg 36 [1956] 266,273; Raxter et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 130 [2006] 374,384) is preferable because it takes into account total skeletal height and thus provides more accurate estimates, but it cannot be applied to incomplete remains. In such circumstances, regression equations allow estimates of living stature from the length of one or few skeletal elements. However, the accuracy of stature estimates from regression equations depends on similarity in body proportions between the population under examination and those used to calibrate the equations. Since genetic affinity and body proportions similarity are not always clearly known in bioarcheological populations, the criteria for selection of appropriate formulae are not always straightforward. This may lead to inaccurate stature estimates and imprecise accounts of past life conditions. Prompted by such practical and theoretical concerns this study aimed at (1) estimating living stature in an early medieval (XI-XII c.) Polish sample (40 male; 20 female) through the anatomical method and developing population-specific regression formulae; and (2) evaluating the accuracy of estimates obtained with regression methods commonly employed in European populations. Results indicate that when applied to the skeletal remains from Giecz, our formulae provide accurate estimates, with non-age-corrected formulae performing better than age-corrected ones. Our formulae provide better estimates than those calibrated on recent populations and their use in medieval Polish populations is preferable. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]