Health and agricultural intensification in the prehistoric valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Hodges, Denise C.

doi:10.1002/ajpa.1330730305

Cited by 46 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Modern samples from Chicago, Jordan, and Mexico indicate that peak age at stress is between birth and 3 years in these groups (Sarnat and Schour, 1941;Alcorn and Goodman, 1985;Goodman et al, 1987). Prehistoric and historic agricultural populations display a range of peak age at stress between 2 and 6 years, while the peak for hunter/ gatherers is between the ages of 3 and 6 years (Swartstedt, 1966;Schulz and McHenry, 1975;Goodman et al, 1984;Hodges, 1986). If peak age at stress as evidenced by hypoplasia can be considered an indicator of time of weaning, it appears from this comparison that hunters and gatherers were weaning their infants at older ages than were agriculturalists, who, in turn, weaned later than modern groups do.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Frequency and distribution of enamel hypoplasias in a historic skeletal sample

Lanphear

1990

American J Phys Anthropol

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A skeletal sample of 296 individuals from a 19th century American poorhouse cemetery is examined for the frequency and chronological distribution of linear enamel hypoplasias on the mandibular canines and maxillary central incisors. Dental enamel hypoplasias may be considered to be indicators of increased exposure to health risk at the time of weaning. The purpose of this study is to examine childhood stress and provide a relative measure of that stress, as evidenced by hypoplasias, in a historic sample that represents an industrializing population. The frequency of enamel hypoplasias per individual by tooth ranged from 70 to 73%, with a peak age at stress of 2.5 to 3 years for the maxillary central incisor and 3.5 to 4 years for the mandibular canine. There were no significant differences in the presence of hypoplasias between males and females. The peak age at stress between 2.5 and 4 years in this 19th century sample transects the ranges reported for prehistoric populations (2-6 years) and for modern groups (0-3 years). These results indicate that the stress associated with weaning probably occurred earlier in incipient industrial societies than in prehistoric hunter/gatherers and agriculturalists, yet not as early as in modern industrial groups. The high level of childhood stress in this skeletal sample compared with that of other samples may indicate a change in health, at least among the lowest class, associated with the cultural transition from an agricultural to an industrial society.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Frequency and distribution of enamel hypoplasias in a historic skeletal sample

Lanphear

1990

American J Phys Anthropol

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“…This approach provides a n empirical basis for the selection of effect size and has been used by one of us (Hodges, 1987). In a study of agricultural intensification and prehistoric health, the effect size observed in earlier studies of different populations were used to assess the power of the chi-square tests of differences in pathology frequencies.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power analysis in biological anthropology

Hodges

Schell

1988

American J Phys Anthropol

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Power in statistical terms is the probability of rejecting a false null hypothesis. Power analysis, although generally not employed by biological anthropologists, is especially useful in interpreting statistical tests in which the null hypothesis is not rejected, and in determining appropriate sample sizes. In this report, the utility of statistical power analysis and the level of variation in power is illustrated by performing power analysis on paleopathology data (Cohen and Armelagos: Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, 1984). The power analyses indicate that most samples are adequately large for detecting large differences among groups, but are inadequate for detecting small differences. Statistical analyses with inadequate power to detect small to medium effects may be of questionable utility in many areas of biological anthropology, as well as in paleopathology. The application of power analysis is recommended for determining necessary sample size in advance of data collection and for interpreting negative results.Statistical power analysis is a technique for determining the power of a statistical test. Power, in statistical terms, is the probability of rejecting a false null hypothesis. The purpose of the present paper is to draw the attention of anthropologists to the use of power analysis as a research tool by demonstrating its utility in paleopathology, one of several areas of anthropological research which routinely must consider statistical tests that fail to reject the null hypothesis, and the results from analyses with limited sample sizes.The neglect of statistical power analysis in the behavioral sciences was noted by Cohen (1962), specifically for psychology. Cohen found that in many studies the probability of rejecting a false null is inadequate and could be leading researchers to abandon fruitful areas of investigation. We believe that power analysis is also absent from most anthropological reports. Our survey (unpublished) of articles appearing in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology over the last five years suggests that the use of power analysis is still negligible in our field. Furthermore, a review of statistical textbooks often used by biological anthroDolomsts shows that Dower analysis, if discussed at all, is done so only briefly (e.g., Snedecor and Cochran, 1980; Sokal and Rohlf, 1981; Thomas, 1986).Commonly, statistical testing in biological anthropology places great emphasis on reducing the occurrence of type I error, i.e., the probability of rejecting a true null, with alpha set at an appropriately low level. Concerns regarding type I1 error are equally valid. Type I1 error occurs when a false null is not rejected, e.g., not differentiating between two fossil assemblages perhaps representing different lineages, or among different groups perhaps representing different degrees of acclimatization. The probability of committing a type 11 error in statistical testing can be estimated by a power analysis.Power analysis is very useful in the interpretation of resu...

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“…A number of recent studies have focused on biocultural relationships, including the relationship between social status, disease processes, and one's ability to recover from environmental pressures, cultural or otherwise (Walker, 1986;Goodman et al, 1988;Cucina & Iscan, 1997;Pechenkina & Delgado, 2006). Some have even used pathology and burial type to make determinations of ascribed or inherited status (Hodges, 1987;Cucina & Iscan, 1997). Competition for resources -and a person's access to, and control of, those resources -may enable some individuals either to avoid biological assaults or to overcome them, where others might succumb.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Osteobiography of a high‐status burial from the lower Río Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Mayes

Barber

2008

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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This paper presents the osteobiography of an individual from an early complex society who was clearly of ''special'' social status but was not classified a ruling elite. Our case derives from a unique burial found at the small site of Yugü e, located in the lower Río Verde valley on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca, Mexico. Burial 14-Individual 16 (B14-I16) dates to the late Terminal Formative Period (CE 100-250), an era of regional political centralization and concomitant social inequality. B14-I16 was interred with several valuable grave offerings. A plasterbacked pyrite mirror was found below his mandible, and his left hand held an elaborately incised flute made from a deer femur. The flute is the only object of its kind known for all of Terminal Formative Mesoamerica. Drawing on the physicality of inequality, we employ osteobiography to assess the social hierarchy. Although B14-I16 was clearly an individual of unusual status in the context of Yugü e, he was not immune from the biological assaults that affected people of less distinguished social position at this time. Like his contemporaries of all social statuses, he suffered ill health in the years during which he was weaned. However, a longer weaning period and access to additional resources may have positioned him to endure later illness better than others in this population. Passing the critical transition period at age 6 ½, a time when many children died in this burial site, his adolescent health was better than that of others in this population. Although B14-I16 did have adult responsibilities, he didn't engage in the kinds of physical labour that marked the skeletons of others. The placement of Burial B14-I16 in the middle tiers of the lower Río Verde valley's ancient social hierarchy provides insight into issues of inequality and status on an individual scale.

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Health and agricultural intensification in the prehistoric valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

Cited by 46 publications

References 17 publications

Frequency and distribution of enamel hypoplasias in a historic skeletal sample

Frequency and distribution of enamel hypoplasias in a historic skeletal sample

Power analysis in biological anthropology

Osteobiography of a high‐status burial from the lower Río Verde Valley of Oaxaca, Mexico

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