New approaches to the pre‐ and post‐contact history of Arctic peoples

Abstract

The last few years have witnessed the addition of new techniques and research strategies to the study of the population history of Arctic peoples. Osteon-photon analysis of bone cores provides a n improved method of assigning age at death to skeletons. Consequently, it is possible to improve calculations of life expectancy and relate them to pathological correlates such as osteoporosis, separate neural arches, spina bifida and arthritis along with regular growth changes. This capability enables much better utilization of pre-contact skeletons and therefore of the numbers, density and composition of populations before European contact.The general picture emerging from skeletal studies, census records and living populations is, in Arctic Eskimos, one of high fertility, high mortality and short length of life, with a slow population growth rate. Aleuts show lower fertility, lower mortality and longer length of life, also with a low population growth rate.

Bone quantity and quality in past populations

“…Mazess (1966) and Mazess and Jones (1972) compared long-bone density in American blacks, American whites, and Sadlermiut Inuit (AD 1500-1900) and found that older Sadlermiut adults have the earliest and highest loss of bone. Other studies have also examined bone loss in archaeological Arctic material with bone core analysis, whereby photon-absorptiometry, histomorphometry, and measures of cortical thickness are performed on a bone core that is sampled from the femoral midshaft (Laughlin et al, 1979;Thompson et al, 1981). Bone core studies of different archaeological Inuit skeletons, when compared with U.S. whites, show thinner cortices, lower bone mineral content, and increased secondary osteonal remodeling, suggestive of an increase in intracortical porosity and subsequent bone loss (Thompson et al, 1981(Thompson et al, , 1983Thompson and Gunness-Hey, 1981).…”

X-ray, CT and DXA study of bone loss on medieval remains from North-West Italy

“…A number of paleopathological studies have been performed on skeletons excavated from archaeological sites and demonstrated that osteoporosis is not simply an issue of modern lifestyle, but was also present in ancient human populations [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Bone mineral‐osteon analysis of Yupik‐inupiaq skeletons

“…white populations (Harper and Mazess, 1980). Differences in patterns of bone turnover between Eskimos and whites have been attributed to diet (Mazess andMather, 1974, 1975) and to diet and genetic differences (Laughlin et al, 1979). Ericksen (1980) and Richman and Ortner (19781, studying skeletons, have suggested that Eskimos differ from other populations studied in the pattern of osteon remodeling.…”