Objectives: Bioarchaeological investigations of sex-based differences in the prevalence of dental pathological lesions, particularly caries, have drawn considerable attention, and out of this work, two dominant models have emerged. Traditionally, the first model interprets sex-related patterns in caries as a product of gendered differences in diet. A more recent model interprets a generally higher propensity for caries prevalence in females in light of reproductive ecology. To test the hypothesis that females have higher risk of caries in accordance with reproductive ecology, we examined and analyzed caries prevalence and other potentially synergistic oral pathological lesions in a late medieval (A.D. 1300-1500) Italian archaeological sample.Materials and methods: We examined sex-and age-related prevalence in caries and other oral pathological lesions in a late medieval Italian skeletal assemblage excavated from Villamagna consisting of 38 females and 37 males (n = 1,534 teeth). We examined age-and sex-related patterns in six dental traits: antemortem tooth loss, caries, calculus, periapical inflammation, tooth wear, and periodontitis.Results: Significant age-related increases in antemortem tooth loss, caries, calculus, and tooth wear were observed in both males and females. However, there was a lack of expected sex differences in oral pathological lesions, with instead older males exhibiting significantly more antemortem tooth loss and corrected caries than females.Discussion: Results are discussed in relation to the ethnohistoric context of medieval rural dietary practices as well as biomedical salivary literature, which suggest that dietary changes throughout the life course may have facilitated trade-offs that buffered females from higher rates of dental pathological lesions. K E Y W O R D Sbioarchaeology, caries, dental anthropology, reproductive ecology, saliva
Objectives: Degenerative joint disease in the spine is heavily influenced by genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors, as well as exacerbated by physical activity and injury. The objective of this study was to investigate the multivariate relationship between known predictors of degenerative joint disease in the spine, such as age and sex, with mortuary indicators of economic access such as grave inclusions, burial location, and burial type. Materials and Methods: The presence and severity of vertebral osteophytosis (VO) and vertebral osteoarthritis (VOA) was recorded for the vertebral columns of N = 106 adult individuals from the Late Medieval period at the rural monastery of San Pietro at Villamagna in Lazio, Italy (1300-1450 AD). Multiple skeletal indicators of degenerative joint disease, morphological sex, and age were compared with differences in mortuary treatment across four regions of the spine. Results: There are marked differences in severe joint disease outcome between groups with more and less economic access. Relative risk ratios suggest that males and females with less economic access have elevated risk for VO and VOA in specific spine regions, although this effect is reduced among females. Discussion: Current research on the consequences of economic and social inequality point to the important role of economic inequality in shaping disease outcomes. Our results suggest that biocultural effects of reduced economic access at the intraclass level may increase vulnerability to the downstream effects of risk exposure (e.g., biomechanical injure, physical activity, biochemical imbalance), and ultimately increase the risk and prevalence for severe degenerative disease outcomes in medieval Italy.
This study examines the interplay between sex, gender, and child-rearing using multiple markers of skeletal growthand health in the late-medieval central Italian population of Villamagna. To reflect the complexity of growth and heterogeneity of the skeleton, we used a multi-method approach: vertebral neural canal dimensions (n = 65), cribra orbitalia (n = 66), porotic hyperostosis (n = 73), linear enamel hypoplasia (n = 51), and terminal adult stature (n = 115). Medieval ethnohistoric accounts strongly support the notion that males at Villamagna would have received preferential treatment. We hypothesized that this social preference for males would manifest in lower prevalence of skeletal changes indicative of stress during growth and development for males compared to females. Our results are surprising in that they show the opposite. The transverse dimensions of the vertebral neural canal indicate greater variability and a significant difference between older (30+ years) and younger (18–29 years) age groups for males, but not for females. Prevalence of cranial and dental stress markers (CO, PH, and LEH) are consistently but not stastistically significantly higher in males than in females. This finding underscores the potential for nuances in experiences associated with child rearing such that gender may well have been a major axis of preference in terms of parental rearing, but biocultural buffers and preferential treatment may well have been more complicated than anticipated. Il presente articolo esamina le interazioni tra sesso, genere e i processi di allevamento dei figli, usando una serie di marcatori relativi alla crescita scheletrica e alle condizioni di salute ossea della popolazione tardo-medievale di Villamagna (FR), nell’Italia centrale. Per tenere in adeguata considerazione le complessità della crescita e l’eterogeneità dei resti scheletrici, abbiamo scelto di utilizzare un approccio multi-metodo che considera i seguenti elementi: dimensioni dei canali neurali vertebrali (n = 65), cribra orbitalia (n = 66), iperostosi porotica (n = 73), ipoplasia lineare dello smalto dentale (LEH) (n = 51) e statura adulta terminale (n = 115). Dati di natura etno-storica sembrano indicare che gli individui maschi ricevessero un trattamento nettamente preferenziale a Villamagna. Abbiamo dunque ipotizzato che questa preferenza sociale si manifestasse sotto forma di una minore prevalenza di alterazioni scheletriche indicative di stress infantile negli individui maschi, paragonati agli individui femmine. Sorprendentemente, le analisi hanno mostrato il contrario. Le dimensioni trasversali del canale neurale vertebrale presentano una maggiore variabilità e significative differenze tra individui maschi differenziati per età (gruppo di 30+ anni, paragonato al gruppo di 18-29 anni), ma ciò non è tuttavia riscontrabile nel caso degli individui femmine. Per quanto riguarda gli indicatori dentali e craniali di stress (CO, PH, e LEH), questi sono apparsi con una prevalenza costantemente superiore negli individui maschi rispetto a quelli femmine, ma questo dato non è da considerarsi statisticamente significativo. I risultati evidenziano il potenziale di un approccio che consideri la possibilità di sfumature nelle esperienze associate all’allevamento dei figli. In particolare, nonostante il genere dell’individuo venisse percepito come un forte elemento discriminatore in termini di preferenza parentale, va considerato che gli ammortizzatori bioculturali e la natura del trattamento preferenziale potrebbero essere stati più complessi del previsto.
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