Patterns of Weaning Among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Communities, Determined From Nitrogen Isotopes

Pfeiffer, Susan; Sealy, Judith; Williamson, Ronald F.; Forrest, Crystal; Lesage, Louis

doi:10.1017/aaq.2016.36

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…However, it appears that suitable specimens from Old Frankfort were not retained after reburial. Because of the amount of information available from a single tooth (Tsutaya & Yoneda, ), much knowledge can be gained from retained samples such as the retained single permanent molars from an ancestral Huron‐Wendat population that was otherwise reburied (Pfeiffer et al, ). Serial sampling of teeth from the Ohio Valley prehistoric populations would now require consultation with possible descendant communities in accord with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More recently, ingenious studies have used serial sampling of teeth (especially the first permanent molar) to look at the nursing and weaning behavior in children and adults that survived infancy (Beaumont et al, ; Henderson et al, ; Pfeiffer et al, ). These studies have the great advantage of tracking diet over time in a single individual.…”

Section: Isotopic Studies Of Prehistoric Infant Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The earliest studies that used nitrogen isotopes to study juvenile nutrition were longitudinal-the isotopic composition of collagen from skeletons of different ages were analysed and plotted by age at death to produce isotope-age profiles (Katzenberg & Pfeiffer, 1995;Katzenberg, Saunders, & Fitzgerald, 1993;Schurr, 1997). This approach is still widely used although serial sampling of collagen from teeth provides an alternative approach that can be used to study childhood diet of individuals who survived infancy and childhood (Beaumont, Montgomery, Buckberry, & Jay, 2015;Henderson, Lee-Thorpe, & Loe, 2014;Pfeiffer, Sealy, Williamson, Forrest, & Lesage, 2017). Other analytical options such as analysing petrous bone collagen, sectioning long bones, and analysing different bone density fractions have various limitations (reviewed by Tsutaya & Yoneda, 2015).…”

Section: Isotopic Studies Of Prehistoric Infant Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring ideas about isotopic variation in breastfeeding and weaning within and between populations: Case studies from the American midcontinent

Schurr

2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Infant feeding practices are partially constrained by the biological demands of infants and mothers but vary within those constraints based on factors such as subsistence practices, health, class and ethnic variations, and the presence or absence of foods that can be substituted for breastmilk. Over the past 20 years, nitrogen stable isotope ratios have been used to explore infant feeding practices in past populations. Recent studies have moved from normative approaches primarily focused on weaning time to examinations of intrapopulation variation. Juvenile and adult stable nitrogen isotope ratios from five sites in the midcontinental USA spanning almost 5,000 years provide an opportunity to examine the relationships between subsistence practices and social organization to juvenile diets reflected in nitrogen and carbon stable isotope ratios and how interpretations of juvenile isotopic variability have changed over time. Infant feeding practices were variable in all populations and between roughly contemporary groups with similar ways of life. As reported before, no change in weaning time was seen with the appearance of food production from Late Archaic hunter‐gatherers (Indian Knoll and Carlston Annis sites) to maize agriculturalists (Angel and Tinsley Hill sites), but carbon stable‐isotope ratios show differences in childhood diet and the consumption of supplemental foods by prehistoric maize agriculturalists. Variability at four prehistoric sites was much less than that seen in an early 19th century cemetery (Old Frankfort Cemetery). Although many juveniles at Old Frankfort followed a trajectory of breastfeeding and weaning similar to that seen at the prehistoric sites, there was an unusually large amount of variation in juvenile and adult diets at Old Frankfort Cemetery. Additional studies on early industrial multi‐ethnic frontier populations are needed to better understand the significance of the variation in this type of population.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Isotopic Studies Of Prehistoric Infant Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Isotopic Studies Of Prehistoric Infant Dietsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Exploring ideas about isotopic variation in breastfeeding and weaning within and between populations: Case studies from the American midcontinent

Schurr

2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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“…Isotopic approaches to past childhood diets mainly focus on determining whether the isotope values of fully weaned children differ from those of adolescent and adults (Halcrow & Tayles, ; Schurr & Powell, ). In a similar vein, comparison between isotope values from those individuals who did not survive childhood (through bone or dentine collagen from nonadults) and those who did (through dentine collagen from adults) has also been a recurrent research topic (Fuller, Richards, & Mays, ; Pfeiffer, Sealy, Williamson, Forrest, & Lesage, ; Sandberg, Sponheimer, Lee‐Thorp, & Van Gerven, ). Despite not being consistently observed, the existence of differences between survivors and nonsurvivors' diets in some studies has called into question the validity of dietary assessments based on data from children dying before reaching adulthood (i.e., the “Osteological Paradox”; Katzenberg, Herring, & Saunders, ; Wood, Milner, Harpending, & Weiss, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infant and childhood diet at the passage tomb of Alto de la Huesera (north‐central Iberia) from bone collagen and sequential dentine isotope composition

Fernández-Crespo

Czermak

Lee‐Thorp

2018

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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During the Late Neolithic (ca. 3500–2900 cal BC), the Rioja Alavesa region of north‐central Spain witnessed great demographic pressure and social unrest, manifested as widespread violent conflict. Drawing upon the ethnographic literature, it is possible that this situation impacted upon child‐rearing practices, both through food shortages and differential parental investment, favouring male infants. Here, carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope measurements from bone collagen of 17 juveniles and from 163 serial microsamples of dentine from first and second molars of seven adults from the site of Alto de la Huesera are used to examine breastfeeding, weaning, and childhood diets. Bone and dentine collagen δ13C and δ15N isotope values both decrease from infancy to early childhood and increase slightly towards adolescence, but dentine provides a more time‐sensitive means of monitoring dietary changes. High δ13C and δ15N values compatible with exclusive breastfeeding are detected up to ca. 1 year, with a significantly shorter duration among males, suggesting differential sex‐related parental strategies from infancy. This is tentative given the small number of individuals being compared, but does suggest that further work would be worthwhile. A gradual decline in both δ13C and δ15N, compatible with the weaning process, is then observed up to ca. 4 years in both sexes. This delayed cessation of nursing is interpreted as a possible response to food shortage. With regard to postweaning patterns, shifts to lower δ13C and δ15N values in females at around age 9–11, and a general progressive increase in both isotope values from childhood to adolescence, are detected. These could be linked either with differential protein intake due to social age‐related nutritional practices or to physiological demand. The comparison between bone and dentine values shows differences between survivors and nonsurvivors in both isotopes, so that assessments based on deceased children may be biased by their potentially compromised health status.

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Exploring the effects of weaning age on adult infectious disease mortality among 18th–19th century Italians

Smith

Reitsema

Fornaciari

et al. 2023

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives: The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) hypothesis describes how early childhood stress affects morbidity and mortality later in life. The role of early childhood stress in mortality from infectious disease is understudied. Stressors in early childhood that weaken the immune system may result in increased susceptibility to infectious disease in adulthood. Weaning is one of the earliest potential periods of significant stress in early childhood. This research investigates the effect of weaning after $6 months of age on cholera mortality among 18th-19th-century Italian populations by determining if earlier breastfeeding cessation is associated with earlier mortality, analyzing childhood dietary variation and physiological stress markers, and determining if age-at-weaning completion differs between catastrophic and attritional populations.Methods: Serial dentin stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses from canines are compared between catastrophic (n = 45) and attritional groups (n = 23). Canines are sectioned serially from crown to apex, and the increment's δ 15 N and δ 13 C are used to estimate age-at-weaning completion.Results: Catastrophic and attritional groups exhibit similar age-at-weaning completion ($2.8 years). Seventy-four percent of individuals lack elevated δ 15 N values in dentin that formed during infancy.Conclusions: Age-at-weaning completion was not a predisposing factor in cholera mortality in adulthood in this sample. Age-at-weaning completion may not be significantly associated with infectious disease mortality because weaning completion likely occurred after infants had adapted to consuming contaminated weanling foods. Individuals without detectable weaning curves may represent infants who received supplementary foods since birth or were weaned before the age of 6-9 months.

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Patterns of Weaning Among Ancestral Huron-Wendat Communities, Determined From Nitrogen Isotopes

Cited by 14 publications

References 47 publications

Exploring ideas about isotopic variation in breastfeeding and weaning within and between populations: Case studies from the American midcontinent

Exploring ideas about isotopic variation in breastfeeding and weaning within and between populations: Case studies from the American midcontinent

Infant and childhood diet at the passage tomb of Alto de la Huesera (north‐central Iberia) from bone collagen and sequential dentine isotope composition

Exploring the effects of weaning age on adult infectious disease mortality among 18th–19th century Italians

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