In this study, we shed light on the interdependency of child growth, morbidity and life expectancy in the fisher-hunter-gatherers of the Jabuticabeira II shell mound (1214-830 cal B.C.E. - 118-413 ...cal C.E.) located at the South Coast of Brazil. We test the underlying causes of heterogeneity in frailty and selective mortality in a population that inhabits a plentiful environment in sedentary settlements. We reconstruct osteobiographies of 41 individuals (23 adults and 18 subadults) using 8 variables, including age-at-death, stature, non-specific stress markers (cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, periosteal reactions, periapical lesions and linear enamel hypoplasia), as well as weaning patterns based on stable isotope data to examine how stress factors module growth and survival. Our results show that shorter adult statures were linked to higher morbidity around weaning age and higher chances of dying earlier (before 35 years) than taller adult statures. In addition, short juvenile stature was related to physiological stressors and mortality. The adult "survivors" experienced recurrent periods of morbidity during childhood and adulthood, possibly associated with the high parasite load of the ecosystem and dense settlement rather than to malnourishment. An association between early-stress exposure and premature death was not demonstrated in our sample. To explain our data, we propose a new model called "intermittent stress of low lethality". According to this model, individuals are exposed to recurrent stress during the juvenile and adult stages of life, and, nevertheless survive until reproductive age or later with relative success.
Re-telling the story of Selk’nam ancestors Olivares, Fernanda; Schattke, Constanze; Molina, Hema’ny ...
Human remains and violence : an interdisciplinary journal,
04/2023, Volume:
9, Issue:
1
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Museums are places characterised by collecting objects, displaying them for
public education and also subjecting their collections to research. Yet
knowledge can not only be created by using the ...collection for research. The
history of a collection can also be reconstructed, albeit mostly in a
fragmentary way. This is important when there is evidence that the collection
was acquired in a colonial context, when the collection contains human remains
and more so if these were taken from Indigenous peoples. Reconstructing the
history of a collection can assist source communities in strengthening their
identities and help to regain lost knowledge about their ancestors. This study
analyses the provenance of fourteen crania and calvaria of the Selk’nam
people from Tierra del Fuego, stored at the Department of Anthropology, Natural
History Museum Vienna. Additionally, the significance of these results and their
meaning for today’s Selk’nam community Covadonga Ona will be
contextualised within the framework of colonial history and museum systems.
Osteological collections are key sources of information in providing crucial
insight into the lifestyles of past populations. In this article, we conduct an
osteobiographical assessment of the human ...remains of fourteen Selk'nam
individuals, which are now housed in the Department of Anthropology, Natural
History Museum Vienna, Austria. The aim is to bring these individuals closer to
their communities of origin by using non-invasive methods aimed at rebuilding
their biological profiles (i.e., age-at-death, biological sex and health
status), adding to these with results from provenance research. This way, the
human remains were assigned a new identity closer to their original one, through
a process that we call ‘re-individualisation’. This is especially
significant since it must be assumed that the individuals were exhumed against
their cultural belief system. We conclude that building strong and long-lasting
collaborations between Indigenous representatives and biological anthropologists
has a pivotal role in research for reappraising Indigenous history.
The Cultural Dynamics of Shell-Matrix Sites Mirjana Roksandic, Sheila Mendonça de Souza, Sabine Eggers, Meghan Burchell, Daniela Klokler / Mirjana Roksandic, Sheila Mendonça de Souza, Sabine Eggers, Meghan Burchell, Daniela Klokler
2014
eBook
The excavation of shell middens and mounds is an important source of information regarding past human diet, settlement, technology, and paleoenvironments. The contributors to this book introduce new ...ways to study shell-matrix sites, ranging from the geochemical analysis of shellfish to the interpretation of human remains buried within. Drawing upon examples from around the world, this is one of the only books to offer a global perspective on the archaeology of shell-matrix sites. "A substantial contribution to the literature on the subject and... essential reading for archaeologists and others who work on this type of site."—Barbara Voorhies, University of California, Santa Barbara, author of Coastal Collectors in the Holocene: The Chantuto People of Southwest Mexico
Isotopic and molecular analysis on human, fauna and pottery remains can provide valuable new insights into the diets and subsistence practices of prehistoric populations. These are crucial to ...elucidate the resilience of social-ecological systems to cultural and environmental change. Bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of 82 human individuals from mid to late Holocene Brazilian archaeological sites (∼6,700 to ∼1,000 cal BP) reveal an adequate protein incorporation and, on the coast, the continuation in subsistence strategies based on the exploitation of aquatic resources despite the introduction of pottery and domesticated plant foods. These results are supported by carbon isotope analysis of single amino acid extracted from bone collagen. Chemical and isotopic analysis also shows that pottery technology was used to process marine foods and therefore assimilated into the existing subsistence strategy. Our multidisciplinary results demonstrate the resilient character of the coastal economy to cultural change during the late Holocene in southern Brazil.
During the early Holocene two main paleoamerican cultures thrived in Brazil: the Tradição Nordeste in the semi-desertic Sertão and the Tradição Itaparica in the high plains of the Planalto Central. ...Here we report on paleodietary singals of a Paleoamerican found in a third Brazilian ecological setting--a riverine shellmound, or sambaqui, located in the Atlantic forest. Most sambaquis are found along the coast. The peoples associated with them subsisted on marine resources. We are reporting a different situation from the oldest recorded riverine sambaqui, called Capelinha. Capelinha is a relatively small sambaqui established along a river 60 km from the Atlantic Ocean coast. It contained the well-preserved remains of a Paleoamerican known as Luzio dated to 9,945±235 years ago; the oldest sambaqui dweller so far. Luzio's bones were remarkably well preserved and allowed for stable isotopic analysis of diet. Although artifacts found at this riverine site show connections with the Atlantic coast, we show that he represents a population that was dependent on inland resources as opposed to marine coastal resources. After comparing Luzio's paleodietary data with that of other extant and prehistoric groups, we discuss where his group could have come from, if terrestrial diet persisted in riverine sambaquis and how Luzio fits within the discussion of the replacement of paleamerican by amerindian morphology. This study adds to the evidence that shows a greater complexity in the prehistory of the colonization of and the adaptations to the New World.
This work provides robust oral pathology and stable isotope evidence on Bayesian mixing model for an unexpectedly high consumption of carbohydrates by a Middle Holocene coastal population of the ...Atlantic Forest of South America, an area traditionally viewed as peripheral to early centres of food production on the continent. A diversified economy with substantial consumption of plant resources was in place at the shellmound (or sambaqui) of Morro do Ouro, in Babitonga Bay, and supported a dense population at ca 4500 cal BP. This dietary composition is unique when compared with that of other contemporary and later groups in the region, including peoples who used ceramics and domesticated crops. The results corroborate independent dietary evidence, such as stone tool artefacts for plant processing and plant microremains in dental calculus of the same individuals, and suggest plant cultivation possibly took place in this region at the same time as the development of early agriculture in Amazonia and the La Plata Basin. Our study situates the Atlantic Forest coast of Brazil on the map of early plant management in the Neotropics.
The origin of syphilis is still controversial. Different research avenues explore its fascinating history. Here we employed a new integrative approach, where paleopathology and molecular analyses are ...combined. As an exercise to test the validity of this approach we examined different hypotheses on the origin of syphilis and other human diseases caused by treponemes (treponematoses). Initially, we constructed a worldwide map containing all accessible reports on palaeopathological evidences of treponematoses before Columbus's return to Europe. Then, we selected the oldest ones to calibrate the time of the most recent common ancestor of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, T. pallidum subsp. endemicum and T. pallidum subsp. pertenue in phylogenetic analyses with 21 genetic regions of different T. pallidum strains previously reported. Finally, we estimated the treponemes' evolutionary rate to test three scenarios: A) if treponematoses accompanied human evolution since Homo erectus; B) if venereal syphilis arose very recently from less virulent strains caught in the New World about 500 years ago, and C) if it emerged in the Americas between 16,500 and 5,000 years ago. Two of the resulting evolutionary rates were unlikely and do not explain the existent osseous evidence. Thus, treponematoses, as we know them today, did not emerge with H. erectus, nor did venereal syphilis appear only five centuries ago. However, considering 16,500 years before present (yBP) as the time of the first colonization of the Americas, and approximately 5,000 yBP as the oldest probable evidence of venereal syphilis in the world, we could not entirely reject hypothesis C. We confirm that syphilis seems to have emerged in this time span, since the resulting evolutionary rate is compatible with those observed in other bacteria. In contrast, if the claims of precolumbian venereal syphilis outside the Americas are taken into account, the place of origin remains unsolved. Finally, the endeavor of joining paleopathology and phylogenetics proved to be a fruitful and promising approach for the study of infectious diseases.
We report genome-wide ancient DNA from 49 individuals forming four parallel time transects in Belize, Brazil, the Central Andes, and the Southern Cone, each dating to at least ∼9,000 years ago. The ...common ancestral population radiated rapidly from just one of the two early branches that contributed to Native Americans today. We document two previously unappreciated streams of gene flow between North and South America. One affected the Central Andes by ∼4,200 years ago, while the other explains an affinity between the oldest North American genome associated with the Clovis culture and the oldest Central and South Americans from Chile, Brazil, and Belize. However, this was not the primary source for later South Americans, as the other ancient individuals derive from lineages without specific affinity to the Clovis-associated genome, suggesting a population replacement that began at least 9,000 years ago and was followed by substantial population continuity in multiple regions.
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•Genome-wide analysis of 49 Central and South Americans up to ∼11,000 years old•Two previously unknown genetic exchanges between North and South America•Distinct link between a Clovis culture-associated genome and the oldest South Americans•Continent-wide replacement of Clovis-associated ancestry beginning at least 9,000 years ago
A large-scale analysis of ancient genomes from Central and South America yields insights into the peopling of the Americas, including four southward population spreads and notable population continuity in much of South America after arrival.