Let's talk about stress, baby! Infant‐feeding practices and stress in the ancient Atacama desert, Northern Chile

King, Charlotte L.; Halcrow, Siân E.; Millard, Andrew R.; Gröcke, Darren R.; Standen, Vivien G.; Portilla, Marco; Arriaza, Bernardo

doi:10.1002/ajpa.23411

Cited by 49 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…Isotopic analysis of adults from this time period indicates that, although maize was available, individuals retained a broad‐spectrum resource base with marine resources still a significant component of the diet (Díaz‐Zorita Bonilla et al, ; King et al, ; Pestle, Torres‐Rouff, Gallardo, Ballester, & Clarot, ; Santana‐Sagredo, Hubbe, & Uribe, ). It is possible that agricultural resources comprised a more important portion of the diet for weaning infants and children (King et al, ), as crops such as maize and quinoa are easily reduced to gruels, which are used in weaning even today by the indigenous groups of the Andes (Barton, Castro Williams, Barja, & Murillo, ). There is no evidence that camelids in the region have ever been used for their milk (Gade, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dentine was then partially demineralised and sliced into 1 mm increments using a surgical steel scalpel (as per Beaumont et al () Method 2). Collagen was extracted from each dentine increment following a modified Longin method (Longin, ), detailed in King et al . Collagen was analysed at the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory, Durham University.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Beaumont and Montgomery (), for instance, showed that, in a European context, a shift to a maize‐based diet during childhood is clearly visible in isotopic profiles. Incremental isotopic profiles may also highlight periods of physiological stress (Fuller et al, ; King et al, ; Mekota, Grupe, Ufer, & Cuntz, ). Nitrogen isotopic ratios, for instance, have been shown to rise during periods of tissue catabolism, with correlated changes in carbon isotopic ratios (Fuller et al, ; Mekota et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using paleopathological indicators in conjunction with incremental isotopic analysis may assist in unravelling interactions between nutrition, stress, and mortality in past populations (Halcrow et al, ). By building isotopic profiles showing when weaning is initiated, and the duration of the weaning process, we can begin to understand when/if physiological stress is occurring relative to the weaning process (King et al, ). This will help us to assess whether osteological evidence can be linked to the weaning process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we assess whether the combination of these techniques can help to tease apart early‐life stress events using a case study from the early agricultural (Formative) period of the northern Atacama Desert, Chile. This individual forms part of our wider study of infant‐feeding and stress in the Atacama context and was chosen because of their bony evidence for stress during early life (King et al, ). Many isotopic studies avoid sampling obviously pathological individuals because of the potential that stress will obscure the isotopic signals of dietary change (Katzenberg & Lovell, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A multifaceted approach towards interpreting early life experience and infant feeding practices in the ancient Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

King

Snoddy

Millard

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Interpreting early life experience in the past is of considerable interest to archaeologists, yet remains fraught with difficulty. Children are sensitive barometers of population health in general. In addition, infant feeding practices, and stresses experienced during infancy and childhood, have important effects on adult health and demographic changes. Understanding how diet and physiological stress interact is therefore of significance, but most bony indicators of stress have non‐specific etiologies that cannot be tied to events during childhood. The recent advent of incremental isotopic techniques means we now have the potential to identify periods of stress and dietary change during childhood through changes to stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios during tissue formation. Being able to establish these individual weaning trajectories allows us to consider individuality in past weaning choices, giving the bioarchaeologist a more nuanced picture of the past. Here, we investigate whether combining paleopathological and isotopic data can give insight into the synergy between infant feeding and stress. We present a case study of a 5‐year‐old child from an early agricultural period archaeological site in the northern Atacama Desert, Chile. We show that, despite physiological stress likely affecting isotopic ratios in this individual, a weaning curve is visible and the interpretation of weaning behaviour is possible. In addition, we suggest that there is isotopic evidence for a micronutrient deficient weaning diet that may be correlated with bony evidence for pathology.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A multifaceted approach towards interpreting early life experience and infant feeding practices in the ancient Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

King

Snoddy

Millard

et al. 2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Societal perceptions and lived experience: Infant feeding practices in premodern Japan

Tsutaya

Shimatani

Yoneda

et al. 2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: A change in how children were treated and valued occurred in premodern Japan, as popularized ideas of an inheritance-based family system led to more careful and affectionate child-rearing practices by lower social-status groups. A number of books were written, advising that breastfeeding should last approximately 3 years. The objective of this study is to reconstruct and compare breastfeeding and weaning practices before and after the transition, to illuminate the impact of documented changes in child-rearing practices on subadults' lived experience. Materials and Methods: Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic data were obtained from 40 subadult skeletons excavated from the Sakai Kango Toshi 871 (SKT871) site (late 17th-19th century, Osaka, Japan). Isotopic results from SKT871 were compared with previously reported results from the Hitotsubashi site (AD 1657-1683, Tokyo, Japan). Hitotsubashi and SKT871 represent urban populations of lower status before and after the transition of societal perception of subadults.Results: The most probable age at the end of weaning reconstructed in SKT871 was 1.9 years (1.4-2.7 years with a 95% credible interval) and was lower than that in Hitotsubashi (2.1-4.1 years with a 95% credible interval). Discussion:The age at the end of weaning became younger after the transition of societal perception toward subadults, and this younger weaning age is inconsistent with written recommendations for the duration of weaning in premodern Japan. It is possible that an increased need for inheritors under the inheritance-based family system led to earlier weaning and shorter inter-birth intervals, but authorities recommended an ideal practice of a longer breastfeeding period. K E Y W O R D Sbreastfeeding and weaning, burial practice, Edo period, perception toward subadults, stable isotope analysis

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Reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices in the Bronze Age Near East using stable nitrogen isotopes

Stantis

Schutkowski

Sołtysiak

2019

American J Phys Anthropol

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Objectives: Breastfeeding and childhood diet have significant impact on morbidity and mortality within a population, and in the ancient Near East, it is possible to compare bioarchaeological reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices with the scant textual evidence. Materials and Methods: Nitrogen stable isotopes (δ 15 N) are analyzed here for dietary reconstruction in skeletal collections from five Bronze Age (ca. 2,800-1,200-BCE) sites in modern Lebanon and Syria. We employed Bayesian computational modeling on cross-sectional stable isotope data of collagen samples (n = 176) mainly from previous studies to test whether the bioarchaeological evidence aligns with the textual evidence of breastfeeding and weaning practices in the region, as well as compare the estimated weaning times to the global findings using the WARN (weaning age reconstruction with nitrogen isotope analysis) Bayesian model.Results: Though the Near East sites in this study had different ecological settings and economic strategies, we found that weaning was introduced to the five sites at 0.5 ± 0.2 years of age and complete weaning occurred around 2.6 ± 0.3 years of age on using the WARN computational model. These weaning processes are within the time suggested by historical texts, though average estimated weaning age on the Mediterranean coast is later than inland sites.Discussion: Compared globally, these Near Eastern populations initiated the weaning process earlier but completed weaning within the global average.Early initial weaning may have created short spacing between pregnancies and a high impact on demographic growth within these agricultural populations, with some variation in subsistence practices accounting for the inland/coastal discrepancies.

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Let's talk about stress, baby! Infant‐feeding practices and stress in the ancient Atacama desert, Northern Chile

Cited by 49 publications

References 90 publications

A multifaceted approach towards interpreting early life experience and infant feeding practices in the ancient Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

A multifaceted approach towards interpreting early life experience and infant feeding practices in the ancient Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

Societal perceptions and lived experience: Infant feeding practices in premodern Japan

Reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices in the Bronze Age Near East using stable nitrogen isotopes

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