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Assessing the association between subsistence strategies and the timing of weaning among indigenous archaeological populations of the Caribbean
Abstract
Human breastfeeding is a biocultural process shaped by the interaction of numerous biological, cultural, economic, and social factors. While previous studies have found that a society's subsistence economy alone does not determine weaning timing, subsistence may still have a profound effect on weaning food choices. This paper analyzes nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes in bone collagen and apatite of individuals from six pre‐colonial Caribbean sites grouped into four subsistence categories: Hunter‐Fisher‐Gatherers (Cueva del Perico I and Cueva Calero, Cuba), Horticulturalists (Canímar Abajo, Cuba), Agriculturalists from the Antilles (Paso del Indio, Puerto Rico), and Agriculturalists of Mesoamerica (Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Belize) in order to explore how subsistence economy affected the different groups' breastfeeding and weaning practices. Ages for the start and the end of weaning, and the isotopic characteristics of possible food sources used as supplements during the weaning process, were assessed using the Bayesian probability model “Weaning Ages Reconstruction with Nitrogen isotopes” (WARN). Model results indicate: 1) a major dietary change around two years of age for most of the study populations, 2) that supplements seem to have been introduced into non‐adults diet at earlier ages than has been observed in ethnographic populations of the area, 3) no direct correlation between the start of weaning and the availability of cultigens, but 4) that groups that had access to cultigens would appear to have weaned their children using foods with lower nitrogen isotope values, suggesting that plants (likely domesticates) may have had an important role as weaning foods.
... Refining models to reconstruct breastfeeding and weaning practices (BWPs) of past populations is of great interest to bioanthropologists, as it provides information about demographic patterns, health [1][2][3][4][5], non-adult rearing practices [6,7], and subsistence strategies [8][9][10]. In relation to paleodemography, higher fertility rates and reduced births intervals have been associated with shorter breastfeeding stages [11][12][13]. ...
... Recent studies of BWPs in Caribbean populations combined the analysis of δ 15 N and δ 13 C values in bone collagen with the use of Bayesian models to reconstruct the timing of weaning and the type of foods used during their weaning process [8,9]. The age at the start of weaning was found to be significantly later than observed in ethnographic populations from the area [43][44][45], or the age established by modern medical recommendations [46], an issue that had previously been observed when analyzing archaeological metadata more broadly [24]. ...
... Outputs of the WARN model simulation includes maximum density estimators and posterior probabilities for: the start of weaning (t 1 , the age at which food other than mother's milk is first added to the infant's diet), the end of weaning (t 2 , when breast milk is no longer provided), as well as the δ 15 N value (δ 15 N wnfood ) of weaning foods, and E, the nitrogen isotope enrichment between mother and child [24]. Bayesian modeling approaches [79] are being increasingly used for dietary reconstructions [47], including BWPs [8,9,22,24]. They offer advantages over ad hoc explanations since conclusions are based on probabilities rather than the use of fixed offsets to account for the difference in δ 15 N between bone collagen and diet. ...
This paper explores the potential of combining different isotope systems from different tissues to improve resolution when reconstructing breastfeeding and weaning practices (BWP) in archaeology. Additionally, we tested whether changes in diet can be detected in deciduous teeth. Rib collagen samples from 22 infants/children from the archaeological site of Bacuranao I (Mayabeque, Cuba) were processed for nitrogen (δ¹⁵N) and carbon (δ¹³Cco) stable isotopes and assessed using a Bayesian model (WARN). In addition, enamel of 48 teeth from 30 infants/children were analyzed for oxygen (δ¹⁸Oen) and carbon (δ¹³Cen) stable isotopes. Data revealed that the timing of weaning cannot be characterized precisely by analyzing either δ¹⁸O or δ¹⁵N. While a depletion in both δ¹⁵N and δ¹³Cco is only evident after one year, the WARN model suggested that the weaning process started at around 3 months and ended around 1.7 years. Most teeth were enriched in δ¹⁸Oen compared to deciduous incisors, suggesting a breastfeeding signal. However, a high variability in δ¹⁸O was found between similar teeth from the same individuals. Higher enrichment in δ¹⁸Oen, and variability, was observed in tissues formed during the first six months of life. A δ¹³C enrichment of 1.0‰ was observed among deciduous teeth and ribs. While most individuals enriched in δ¹⁵N showed enrichment in δ¹³C, the δ¹⁸O values were more variable. Our data suggests that stable isotopes of deciduous teeth, especially δ¹³Cen, can be used to detect changes in diet during the weaning process. It is also possible that the δ¹⁸O enrichment observed in M1 is influenced by the effects of cooking techniques on weaning foods. The combination of multiple isotope systems and tissues overcome some of the limitations posed by single tissue approaches.
... (Stock and Semmens, 2013; was used to account for both process and residual sampling errors that can arise due to consumers sampling food sources from different locations, and any inherent isotopic variability among consumers, respectively (Stock and Semmens, 2016). We included into the model the sources that had been previously identified as potential food for adults and non-adults in the region (Pestle, 2010;Mickleburgh and Pagán Jiménez et al., 2012;Chinique de Armas et al., 2015;Chinique de Armas and Pestle, 2018). The isotopic composition of Caribbean food sources (flora and fauna), and their concentration dependencies, were taken from Pestle (2010) and cited literature (Table 2). ...
... Of these, none of the observed starches had characteristics consistent with maize. This absence of maize in both the non-adults' dental calculus (Mickleburgh and Pagán Jiménez, 2012) and in stable isotope values (Chinique de Armas et al., 2017, 2022Chinique de Armas and Pestle, 2018) had already been reported before in the Caribbean. Future studies including both stable isotope and starch analysis in the dental calculus of non-adults may help to understand the apparent low consumption of maize in some Caribbean precolonial populations. ...
Paleoethnobotanical and stable isotope studies have demonstrated that the indigenous groups that populated the Antilles, traditionally understood as dependent exclusively on wild resources, cultivated and consumed both C3 and C4 plants even before the arrival of the ceramic-bearing Arawak groups. However, the relative importance of cultigens and the differential use of plants, especially maize, between populations and individuals remains unknown. In this paper we combined the analysis of stable isotopes (δ¹⁵N, δ¹³Cco, δ¹³Cen, δ¹³Cap, δ³⁴S) of 27 individuals from the archaeological site of Playa del Mango, Cuba with the identification of starch grains in dental calculus. The stable isotope results indicate that the sampled population had a 70:30 C3/C4 diet, where at least 65 % was based on C3 protein. Starches from C3 (e.g., Marantaceae, Ipomoea batatas) and C4 plants (Zea mays) were found in similar proportions (50:50). These results support that the lack or abundance of starch grains cannot be used to infer directly the frequency at which C3 and C4 plants were consumed within a small population. Statistically significant differences between females and males in the carbon isotope composition of diet, and its energy portion, suggests a differential consumption of plants by sex. Playa del Mango individual diets were statistically different from those of coeval sites, supporting our previous findings that groups with different dietary traditions concurrently inhabited Cuba in precolonial times. The study demonstrates the power of combined use of stable isotope models, and starch analysis, to provide a more nuanced reconstruction of dietary practices in past human populations.
... Compiling those studies that have used WARN to calculate weaning and complete weaning times (Chinique de Armas & Pestle, 2018;Smith, Pestle, Clarot, & Gallardo, 2017;Tsutaya, 2017), t 1 MDE averages 1.1 ± 0.8 and t 2 MDE averages 3.0 ± 1.3. There is, as observed on Figure 5, a wide range of weaning times calculated by WARN which is possibly a result of small sample sizes creating biased, unrepresentative values for a population but potentially a reflection of the variety of weaning and childhood feeding practices within our species (Dettwyler, 1995). ...
... I G U R E 5 t 1 and t 2 ages in a global comparison of previous WARN studies (Chinique de Armas& Pestle, 2018;Smith et al., 2017;Tsutaya & Yoneda, 2013) Global average with ±1 SD shown foods as calculated using the WARN model, and intersite differences in δ 15 N values should not affect the Bayesian computations regarding the timing of weaning and complete weaning. ...
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 (δ15 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.
... Studying breastfeeding and weaning practices (BWPs) helps us understand how varied breastfeeding strategies were over the centuries and by how many factors (both biological and cultural) they were shaped. Cultural factors which are held to be the most critical socio-economic determinants of breastfeeding, supplementation or weaning practices include religious and social beliefs, type of economy and related food strategies described as subsistence economy (WHO 1998;Dettwyler 2004;Tsutaya and Yoneda 2015;Chinique de Armas and Pestle 2018). The last of the aforementioned factors is of particular interest to bioarchaeologists. ...
Research using stable isotopes for the reconstruction of breastfeeding strategies are based on assumptions that have not yet been verified by experimental studies. Interpreting the results of isotope analysis is associated with a certain degree of uncertainty, mainly due to the lack of information on how isotopes are distributed in mothers, breast-fed and weaned offspring. Culinary practices also can affect the interpretation of isotope results. Considering positive correlation between oxygen isotope composition of drinking water and bone phosphates, experimental studies were carried out using rats as an animal model. The experiment showed that apatites of breast-fed offspring were enriched 1.6‰ in comparison to the values observed in their mothers. In the boiled water model, the difference was 1.8‰. On the basis of the animal model, it was estimated that the difference in δ 18 O between mother and child in the human species may amount to approximately 2.7‰, and long-term intake of boiled liquid food and beverages will not compensate the difference. The experiment allowed observation of the effect of changes in isotope ratios to a change in trophic levels during breastfeeding and weaning, as well as the additional effect associated with the consumption of isotope enriched water during thermal treatment.
... Aunque el volumen se distingue por mostrar una diversa gama de estudios bioantropológicos en poblaciones modernas, el potencial de la antropología biológica en el estudio de las poblaciones indígenas de Cuba, y sus descendientes, constituye uno de los aspectos menos desarrollados de este empeño. La obra se hubiese beneficiado de incluir, o debatir con mayor profundidad, los aportes recientes de la bioarqueología y la arqueometría en el estudio de las migraciones (Laffoon et al., 2013), la alimentación y la nutrición de las poblaciones del pasa-do (Valcárcel Rojas et al., 2011;2020;Chinique de Armas et al., 2015;2022a;Rodríguez Suárez et al., 2020), incluyendo la reconstrucción de las prácticas de lactancia y su influencia en la supervivencia de los infantes (Chinique de Armas et al., 2012;2017;2022b;Chinique de Armas and Pestle, 2018). De igual modo, hubiera sido favorable tomar en consideración aspectos relacionados con la diversidad biológica y cultural de estos grupos Chinique de Armas et al., 2016;2019), para alcanzar mayor balance y actualidad. ...
... No obstante, el cese del amamantamiento es igualmente trascendental e implica un cambio en la calidad de la alimentación que afecta la fragilidad inmunológica y aumenta el riesgo de morir en la medida en que se haga más prematura y drásticamente (Leonard, 2008;Lewis, 2007;Márquez, 2009). La duración de la lactancia es variable debido a preceptos culturales, lo que hace que esté estrechamente relacionada con el papel social que la mujer desempeña (Chinique de Armas y Pestle, 2018;Fauve-Chamoux, 2000;Massó, 2013;Rodríguez y Tapia, 2019;Stuart-Macadam, 1995;Wells, 2006). De acuerdo con esto, varios estudios antropológicos han evidenciado que la duración de la lactancia en bandas de cazadores-recolectores es mayor en comparación con las sociedades agrícolas (Chinique de Armas y Pestle, 2018; Crowe, 2000;Massó, 2013;Rodríguez y Tapia, 2019;Wells, 2006), generándose así un mayor espaciamiento de los embarazos por el balance hormonal experimentado durante la lactancia, el cual hace que las madres presenten un periodo de "infertilidad". ...
En el presente trabajo se consideran los análisis isotópicos como un elemento útil en la aproximación a las prácticas de crianza en la antigüedad, ya que la huella isotópica del periodo de lactancia/destete puede ayudar a entender algunos aspectos que no son fáciles de dilucidar solamente a través de la inspección osteológica, pues lo acontecido durante este periodo hace parte de las estrategias de cuidado de los infantes y tiene repercusiones en la salud humana a corto, mediano y largo plazo. Para ilustrar esta aproximación a las prácticas de crianza desde la perspectiva bioarqueológica, se analizó un conjunto funerario prehispánico del periodo tardío, procedente de las tierras bajas del Caribe colombiano (Tubará). Los análisis realizados evidenciaron que la huella isotópica del colágeno hallado en los restos analizados, asociada a la presencia de marcadores de estrés fisiológico inespecífico, permite sugerir la posibilidad de un destete precoz y su impacto en la mortalidad selectiva de la población. En ese sentido, este trabajo enuncia diferentes factores relacionados con el fenómeno de destete y de esta forma, pone en consideración varios aspectos relevantes en bioarqueología para las aproximaciones sobre el cuidado de los infantes en la antigüedad y para entender su dimensión biocultural.
... Subsistence mode. In a study of the Caribbean region, Chinique de Armas and Pestle [44] compared dietary patterns in children ranging in age from 0 to 10 years (n ¼ 88) across three distinct subsistence modes: GHF; horticulturalists and agriculturalists. The authors suggested that the high values of nitrogen enrichment in the GHF group indicated that meat, marine and riverine foods were included in the infant or young child diets, possibly premasticated before the eruption of first teeth. ...
Dietary patterns spanning millennia could inform contemporary public health nutrition. Children are largely absent from evidence describing diets throughout human evolution, despite prevalent malnutrition today signaling a potential genome-environment divergence. This systematic review aimed to identify dietary patterns of children ages 6 months to 10 years consumed before the widespread adoption of agriculture. Metrics of mention frequency (counts of food types reported) and food groups (globally standardized categories) were applied to: compare diets across subsistence modes [gatherer–hunter–fisher (GHF), early agriculture (EA) groups]; examine diet quality and diversity; and characterize differences by life course phase and environmental context defined using Köppen–Geiger climate zones. The review yielded child diet information from 95 cultural groups (52 from GHF; 43 from EA/mixed subsistence groups). Animal foods (terrestrial and aquatic) were the most frequently mentioned food groups in dietary patterns across subsistence modes, though at higher frequencies in GHF than in EA. A broad range of fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers were more common in GHF, while children from EA groups consumed more cereals than GHF, associated with poor health consequences as reported in some studies. Forty-eight studies compared diets across life course phases: 28 showed differences and 20 demonstrated similarities in child versus adult diets. Climate zone was a driver of food patterns provisioned from local ecosystems. Evidence from Homo sapiens evolution points to the need for nutrient-dense foods with high quality proteins and greater variety within and across food groups. Public health solutions could integrate these findings into food-based dietary guidelines for children.
... Archaeological data also suggested a possible division of the non-deformed population into two periods: hunter-gathering and protoagricultural (actual names may vary from author to author), the latter one characterized by the evidence of simple agriculture and crude ceramics at the corresponding sites (Tabío 1988:64-65;Guarch Delmonte 1990;Pérez Carratalá 2014:78-80). It has also been shown based on stable isotope analysis that subsistence strategies differed throughout the territory of the island even between contemporaneous communities: groups inhabiting Canímar Abajo site have been shown to rely on horticulture while Cueva Calero and Cueva del Perico inhabitants apparently relied on hunting-fishing-gathering strategy (Chinique de Armas et al. 2018). ...
The paper aims to study intragroup variation inside the two pre-Columbian Cuban populations: the aceramic Archaic and the ceramic Taino groups, based on their cranial morphology. The latter applied artificial cranial deformation to all its members, so the groups are referred to as "non-deformed" and "deformed" samples here. Studies across different disciplines suggest evidence of cultural and biological diversity inside the non-deformed group, while local variations of applying the deforming device can be responsible for shape variation across the deformed group. Cranial metrics and non-metric cranial traits of the 92 crania of Cuban origin were analyzed, although the sample size varied between the analyses due to the incompleteness of the crania. Geometric morphometrics was applied to the deformed crania to study the shape variation across the sample. Three deformed crania from the Dominican Republic were analyzed together with the deformed Cuban sample to test the variability of the practice between the islands. Principal component analysis and the Mantel test did not reveal any geographic differences in the cranial metric traits. No morphological differences associated with the antiquity of materials could be seen either based on the available data. The principal component analysis of the Procrustes coordinates of the cranial vault outline in the lateral norm revealed continuous variability of cranial shapes from the ones with more flattened frontal and occipital bones to the more curved outlines, which is probably explained by individual variation. Non-metric traits variation revealed bilateral asymmetry in the expression of the occipito-mas-toidal ossicles among the deformed crania. In conclusion, the study did not support assumptions about morphological diversity inside the studied samples or proved the impossibility of available craniological data to reflect possible intragroup differentiation at the moment.
Objectives
In this paper, we sought to examine whether people with different lifeways, as evidenced by their mobility patterns and dietary practices, inhabited the Antilles in early precolonial time. We also aimed to explore spatiotemporal trends.
Materials and Methods
New and previously published enamel strontium, oxygen, and carbon isotope data were combined with bone apatite carbon and bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope data to assess the mobility and diet of 146 individuals from eight early precolonial sites from Cuba.
Results
At least three patterns of mobility, associated with different dietary signals, were identified. In contrast with the low ⁸⁷ Sr/ ⁸⁶ Sr and δ ¹³ C en variability found in Canímar Abajo (CA) between bce 1320 and 807, more variability in dietary practices and higher mobility was apparent in later groups. Between bce 116 and 241 ce , individuals from Playa del Mango showed high mobility within the Cauto region, likely associated with food procurement between inland and coastal areas. From at least 174 ce , a moderate pattern of mobility and a diversity of dietary traditions could be observed among groups from western sites. At least three general dietary patterns were observed, ranging from a 100% C 3 diet to 70:30 C 3 /C 4 and, in the case of CA, a higher dependence on marine/C 4 resources.
Conclusions
The differences observed in both mobility and diet between and within populations support the notion that groups with different lifeways inhabited the Antilles in precolonial times. This diverse mosaic of cultural traits defies attempts to group them into broad categories for regional studies of biological and cultural traits.
At a once-vibrant population center in Central Belize that archaeologists have named Kaax Tsaabil, a woman was buried in the crumbling remains of a building. This osteobiography reconstructs aspects of the woman’s life history, death, and burial as recorded on her skeleton and places these aspects within the broader story of the Maya community in which she lived. Care and maintenance of the building had ceased prior to her interment, and radiocarbon dates measured directly from her remains show that this occurred at the height of the Classic period. However, despite evidence of abandonment, traces of periodic activity—like the burial and nearby deposits of smashed ceramics—show that Kaax Tsaabil maintained some significance to those living nearby.
Over thirty years of stable isotope research about the breastfeeding and weaning practices of past human populations has contributed a vast amount to our understanding of infancy and childhood. The length of exclusive breastfeeding, age of weaning initiation and cessation, and types of weaning foods, are important variables affecting infant and child morbidity and mortality, and hence population demography. Stable isotope infant and child feeding (ICF) data have contributed to several debates in archaeology, including the fertility and growth of populations with different subsistence strategies. Most fundamentally, these data reveal the biological adaptations and cultural norms of breastfeeding and weaning over the last eleven thousand years. This chapter focuses on reviewing the current state of knowledge about ICF practices of 26 past forager populations and highlights two ancient groups (7500–4600 years before present) from the Lake Baikal region of Siberia. Most forager studies have found that weaning cessation occurred around three years-of-age, similar to the three to four year-old average age of weaning completion in the Siberian infants. For comparison, stable isotope data on ICF from 71 populations dating to before the post-Medieval period, that were predominately reliant on domesticated crops and/or animals, are presented. Average weaning cessation ages range from one- to five-years. The frequency of populations with an average weaning age under three years vs. three years and older is very similar in forager (<3y = 50%; ≥3y = 42%; n/a = 8%) and agricultural/pastoral populations (<3y = 48%; ≥3y = 41%; n/a = 11%). This suggests subsistence type does not directly cause different weaning lengths. Weaning cessation age also does not decrease over time. A wide array of foods have been used in the weaning process. Newer tooth dentine incremental sampling methods are revealing considerable variation in ICF practices between individuals within a population. These types of sampling methods are better elucidating other weaning variables, such as initiation, velocity, and regularity, offering considerable promise for better understanding infant and child health, survival, and lifeways. It is time to shift our attention from average weaning cessation ages to explore the causes of intra-population heterogeneity and the influence of other ICF variables.KeywordsStable carbon isotopesNitrogen isotopesBreastfeedingWeaningSiberian foragers
It is clear that the societal role of meat is being challenged with ideological and simplified logic without substantiation from robust data-driven science. With this background, the international summit titled ‘The societal role of meat – what the science says’ was held in Dublin, Ireland, during October 2022, to provide evidence-based evaluations and the Dublin Declaration was signed by over 1000 scientists. In this paper, we provide a synopsis of the summit and then give context for evaluating the societal role of meat in Australia. The key themes of the summit were the essential roles of meat in (1) diet and health, (2) a sustainable environment and (3) society, economics and culture. Evidence clearly showed the role of meat as a nutrient-dense source of high-quality protein and micronutrients that can be safely consumed by humans. Further, the complementary role of livestock in agricultural systems was highlighted with both plant- and animal-based agriculture reliant on each other to maximise the efficient production of food. Thus, from both an Australian and world perspective, very little food considered to be human-edible is fed to livestock. The role of livestock in rural societies across the world was emphasised to underpin regional and national economies, with particular importance in those countries with developing economies to facilitate growing wealth to ‘step out’ of poverty and provide gender equality. Meat production, particularly from ruminants, is a critical part of Australian primary production and it is concluded that the Dublin Declaration is highly relevant to Australia. Finally, concern regarding future funding and organisation of research and extension is discussed. There is a need to continue funding highly collaborative programs that bring a broad range of disciplines together, in conjunction with undergraduate and postgraduate teaching to underpin the social license to operate for meat and livestock production.
In the Greater Antilles, certain animal taxa that have long been theorised to have been managed by indigenous peoples prior to AD1492, the main candidates being a group of endemic caviomorph rodents known as hutias (Capromyinae). This isotopic study investigates the palaeodiets of several species of endemic rodents from three late precolonial sites in the northern Dominican Republic: El Flaco (cal. AD 990‐1452), El Carril (cal. AD 1030‐1262), and La Entrada (cal. AD 840‐900) to assess whether human influence over animal diets can be determined. We examined bone collagen carbon (δ13Cco) and nitrogen (δ15N) and tooth enamel carbon (δ13Cen) isotope values of three species of hutias, Isolobodon portoricensis, I. montanus, and Plagiodontia aedium, edible rat (Brotomys sp.) and domestic guinea pig (Cavia porcellus). To estimate dietary source contributions, we employed a Bayesian dietary mixing model (FRUITS v.3.0) and ran three different permutations to assess the relative contributions of C3 or C4/CAM plants. The addition of an extra 79 wild C3 and 40 wild C4/CAM plant species’ isotope values from published sources to an established isotopic foodweb for the Caribbean region enabled us to discriminate between wild and domestic C3 and C4/CAM plant food sources in two of these models. Our results provide evidence of the significant consumption of domestic C4/CAM plants by some animals. This likely represents maize (Zea mays) consumption, which is known to have been ubiquitously cultivated by indigenous peoples in the region. This is particularly the case for I. portoricensis, as FRUITS modelling suggests that a few individuals consumed C4/CAM plants well beyond their expected natural diets as determined from feeding studies of extant hutia species. This may indicate human influence over endemic rodent diets due to niche construction activities such as horticultural practices and may reflect either opportunistic feeding on human produce or the purposeful supplementation of hutia diets by humans.
This study investigates diet heterogeneity among Chinchorro and Inca adults and subadults living on the northern Chilean coast of the Atacama Desert before and after the introduction of maize cultivation. This is achieved by amino acid carbon isotope analysis and bulk carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur isotope analysis of 1-cm sequential segments of scalp hair from human remains deposited at the funerary sites of Morro 1 and 1–6 (Archaic Period) and Camarones 9 (Late Period).
Results show that Chinchorro adults relied predominantly on marine resources and partially on wild plants. Inter-individual variability in diet was limited, indicating food redistribution between sexes. Childhood and adolescent diets were comparable to those of the adults. Partial breastfeeding was continued up to the age of 2–3 yrs. Subsequently, Inca adults relied on a combination of marine resources and maize. Intra- and inter-individual variability in diet was limited suggesting existence of a centralised system of food procurement and redistribution. Childhood and juvenile diets were comparable to those of the adults, except for two malnourished children being raised on maize.
Amino acid δ¹³C analysis of hair keratin is proposed as a potential tool for reconstructing the nutritional status of an infant without population-specific maternal isotope baseline.
Objective:
In this study we analyze breastfeeding and weaning practices in pre-Columbian complex hunter-gatherers from the lower Paraná River basin (South America).
Materials and Methods:
We carried out bone isotope analyses concerning δ¹³C in collagen and apatite, the spacing between both carbon sources and δ¹⁵N in a sample of 23 subadult and adult individuals of both sexes recovered from Late Holocene archaeological sites, ranging from 1665 ± 45 to 680 ± 80 ¹⁴C years BP.
Results and Discussion:
The results indicate that exclusive breastfeeding continued until the age of ~2 years, and weaning probably until 4 years of age. Supplementary foods included C3 plants and probably animal fats and C4 carbohydrates. A high fractionation of 4.9‰ in δ¹⁵N values was recognized between breastfeeding infants and adult females, perhaps reflecting episodic hyper-protein diets in women linked to men's food provisioning during women's gestational/postpartum period. Additionally, male adults present a higher protein intake than females. Although this difference is not statistically significant with the current sample size, it could be a clue related to a sexual division in food procurement.
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 intra‐population 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 nineteenth century cemetery (Old Frankfort cemetery). While 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.
This book documents the diversity and complexity that existed in the Caribbean prior to the arrival of Europeans, and immediately thereafter. The diversity results from different origins, different histories, different contacts between the islands and the mainland, different environmental conditions, and shifting social alliances. Organized chronologically, from the arrival of the first humans -- the paleo Indians -- in the sixth millennium BC to early contact with Europeans, The Caribbean before Columbus presents a new history of the region based on the latest archaeological evidence. The result is the most up-to-date and comprehensive survey of the richly complex cultures who once inhabited the six archipelagoes of the Caribbean.
The general lack of well-preserved juvenile skeletal remains from Caribbean archaeological sites has, in the past, prevented evaluations of juvenile dietary changes. Canímar Abajo (Cuba), with a large number of well-preserved juvenile and adult skeletal remains, provided a unique opportunity to fully assess juvenile paleodiets from an ancient Caribbean population. Ages for the start and the end of weaning and possible food sources used for weaning were inferred by combining the results of two Bayesian probability models that help to reduce some of the uncertainties inherent to bone collagen isotope based paleodiet reconstructions. Bone collagen (31 juveniles, 18 adult females) was used for carbon and nitrogen isotope analyses. The isotope results were assessed using two Bayesian probability models: Weaning Ages Reconstruction with Nitrogen isotopes and Stable Isotope Analyses in R. Breast milk seems to have been the most important protein source until two years of age with some supplementary food such as tropical fruits and root cultigens likely introduced earlier. After two, juvenile diets were likely continuously supplemented by starch rich foods such as root cultigens and legumes. By the age of three, the model results suggest that the weaning process was completed. Additional indications suggest that animal marine/riverine protein and maize, while part of the Canímar Abajo female diets, were likely not used to supplement juvenile diets. The combined use of both models here provided a more complete assessment of the weaning process for an ancient Caribbean population, indicating not only the start and end ages of weaning but also the relative importance of different food sources for different age juveniles.
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Over the past forty years, stable isotope analysis of bone (and tooth) collagen and hydroxyapatite has become a mainstay of archaeological and paleoanthropological reconstructions of paleodiet and paleoenvironment. Despite this method's frequent use across anthropological subdisciplines (and beyond), the present work represents the first attempt at gauging the effects of inter-laboratory variability engendered by differences in a) sample preparation, and b) analysis (instrumentation, working standards, and data calibration). Replicate analyses of a 14C-dated ancient human bone by twenty-one archaeological and paleoecological stable isotope laboratories revealed significant inter-laboratory isotopic variation for both collagen and carbonate. For bone collagen, we found a sizeable range of 1.8‰ for δ13Ccol and 1.9‰ for δ15Ncol among laboratories, but an interpretatively insignificant average pairwise difference of 0.2‰ and 0.4‰ for δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol respectively. For bone hydroxyapatite the observed range increased to a troublingly large 3.5‰ for δ13Cap and 6.7‰ for δ18Oap, with average pairwise differences of 0.6‰ for δ13Cap and a disquieting 2.0‰ for δ18Oap. In order to assess the effects of preparation versus analysis on isotopic variability among laboratories, a subset of the samples prepared by the participating laboratories were analyzed a second time on the same instrument. Based on this duplicate analysis, it was determined that roughly half of the isotopic variability among laboratories could be attributed to differences in sample preparation, with the other half resulting from differences in analysis (instrumentation, working standards, and data calibration). These findings have serious implications for choices made in the preparation and extraction of target biomolecules, the comparison of results obtained from different laboratories, and the interpretation of small differences in bone collagen and hydroxyapatite isotope values. To address the issues arising from inter-laboratory comparisons, we devise a novel measure we term the Minimum Meaningful Difference (MMD), and demonstrate its application.
This article outlines some of the major theoretical premises widely used as a template for explaining varied pythocultural dynamics and agro-economic subsistence strategies of the precolonial Antilles. It discusses archaeobotanical data retrieved during the last decade that contradicts the main premises of the phytocultural “meta-theory.” The synthetic exposition of new phytocultural scenarios proposed here is intended to stimulate new interpretive models and research on the paleoethnobotany of the Antilles. The discussion addresses two central issues: plant production and dispersals during the Pre-Arawak era and the use of burenes (ceramic griddles) for the processing and cooking of a broad suite of useful plants in later agro-economies of the region, in which manioc probably played a secondary role.
Human and animal diet reconstruction studies that rely on tissue chemical signatures aim at providing estimates on the relative intake of potential food groups. However, several sources of uncertainty need to be considered when handling data. Bayesian mixing models provide a natural platform to handle diverse sources of uncertainty while allowing the user to contribute with prior expert information. The Bayesian mixing model FRUITS (Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals) was developed for use in diet reconstruction studies. FRUITS incorporates the capability to account for dietary routing, that is, the contribution of different food fractions (e.g. macronutrients) towards a dietary proxy signal measured in the consumer. FRUITS also provides relatively straightforward means for the introduction of prior information on the relative dietary contributions of food groups or food fractions. This type of prior may originate, for instance, from physiological or metabolic studies. FRUITS performance was tested using simulated data and data from a published controlled animal feeding experiment. The feeding experiment data was selected to exemplify the application of the novel capabilities incorporated into FRUITS but also to illustrate some of the aspects that need to be considered when handling data within diet reconstruction studies. FRUITS accurately predicted dietary intakes, and more precise estimates were obtained for dietary scenarios in which expert prior information was included. FRUITS represents a useful tool to achieve accurate and precise food intake estimates in diet reconstruction studies within different scientific fields (e.g. ecology, forensics, archaeology, and dietary physiology).
An 8 m sediment core from Laguna Tortuguero, Puerto Rico, provides a 7000 calendar year history of fire occurrence and sedimentation on the island's north coast. After c. 5300 cal-BP, microscopic charcoal particle concentration and influx increase abruptly, and values remain high for the next two millennia. Subsequent to c. 3200 cal-BP, fire occurrence gradually declines to more moderate levels. It seems likely that the mid-Holocene acceleration in fire frequency documented here may signal the onset of human disturbance of the landscape. Indirect detection of human arrival on oceanic islands from a sudden increase in stratigraphic charcoal may be a useful technique in other island contexts, although it is important to consider that wildfires can occur without a human ignition source.
Nitrogen isotope analysis of bone collagen has been used to reconstruct the breastfeeding practices of archaeological human populations. However, weaning ages have been estimated subjectively because of a lack of both information on subadult bone collagen turnover rates and appropriate analytical models.
Temporal changes in human subadult bone collagen turnover rates were estimated from data on tissue-level bone metabolism reported in previous studies. A model for reconstructing precise weaning ages was then developed using a framework of approximate Bayesian computation and incorporating the estimated turnover rates. The model is presented as a new open source R package, WARN (Weaning Age Reconstruction with Nitrogen isotope analysis), which computes the age at the start and end of weaning, (15)N-enrichment through maternal to infant tissue, and [Formula: see text] value of collagen synthesized entirely from weaning foods with their posterior probabilities. The model was applied to 39 previously reported Holocene skeletal populations from around the world, and the results were compared with weaning ages observed in ethnographic studies.
There were no significant differences in the age at the end of weaning between the archaeological (2.80±1.32 years) and ethnographic populations. By comparing archaeological populations, it appears that weaning ages did not differ with the type of subsistence practiced (i.e., hunting-gathering or not). Most of [Formula: see text]-enrichment (2.44±0.90‰) was consistent with biologically valid values. The nitrogen isotope ratios of subadults after the weaning process were lower than those of adults in most of the archaeological populations (-0.48±0.61‰), and this depletion was greater in non-hunter-gatherer populations. Our results suggest that the breastfeeding period in humans had already been shortened by the early Holocene compared with those in extant great apes.
Cross-cultural studies have revealed broad quantitative associations between subsistence practice and demographic parameters
for preindustrial populations. One explanation is that variationin the availability of suitable weaning foods influenced the
frequency and duration of breastfeeding and thus the length of interbirth intervals and the probability of child survival
(the “weaning food availability” hypothesis). We examine the available data on weaning age variation in preindustrial populations
and report results of a cross-cultural test of the predictions that weaning occurred earlier in agricultural and pastoral
populations because dairy and cereal production increased the availability of easily digestible, nutrientrich foods appropriate
for weaning. We found that, contrary to predictions, supplementation with liquid foods other than breast milk was delayed
in agricultural populations relative to less agriculturally dependent ones and complementary feeding with solid foods was
delayed in pastoral populations relative to those less dependent on herding. Although the duration of breastfeeding was longer
in populations dependent on hunting, there was no qualitative evidence that such populations lacked foods appropriate for
weaning. The patterns observed suggest that the relationships between demography and subsistence observed among preindustrial
societies cannot be explained by the “weaning food availability” hypothesis. We discuss the implications for understanding
the mechanisms underlying prehistoric human demography, subsistence shifts, allocation to parenting and mating effort, and
the evolutionary implications of tradeoffs between diet and disease.
The increase in the Neolithic human population following the development of agriculture has been assumed to result from improvements in health and nutrition. Recent research demonstrates that this assumption is incorrect. With the development of sedentism and the intensification of agriculture, there is an increase in infectious disease and nutritional deficiencies particularly affecting infants and children.
Declining health probably increased mortality among infants, children and oldest adults. However, the productive and reproductive core would have been able to respond to this increase in mortality by reducing birth spacing. That is, agricultural populations increased in size, despite higher mortality, because intervals between births became shorter.
Harvesting different species as foods or raw materials calls for differing skills depending on the species being harvested and the circumstances under which they are being taken. In some situations and for some species, the tactics used are mainly behavioral—that is, people adjust, or adapt, their own actions to fit the behavior and circumstances of the species they are taking. Under other circumstances and for other species, the skills and tactics used may call for greater environmental preparation or manipulation. Therefore, instead of trying to distinguish people today and in the past as either "foragers" or "farmers," it makes sense to define human subsistence behavior as an interactive matrix of species and harvesting tactics, that is, as a provisions spreadsheet.
The Archaic populations of Cuba have been classified as “fisher-gathers” without agriculture or pottery. The introduction of domesticates into the island has been associated with the arrival of Agroceramist groups. In this chapter, the analysis of stable isotopes of ¹³ C and ¹⁵ N on 63 adult individuals from four Archaic sites from western Cuba is used to reconstruct the diet of their respective populations. The results indicate two different food consumption patterns. While Canímar Abajo population had a mixed diet dependent on marine resources and C 3 /C 4 plants; Guayabo Blanco, Cueva del Perico I and Cueva Calero relied mostly on terrestrial protein sources (probably consuming only C 3 plants). The results show cultural heterogeneity among populations that coexisted in the island, as the authors present a compelling evidence for differences in subsistence practices of temporally and spatially close communities and examine the notion of uniform “phases” of economic development, current in Cuban and Caribbean research.
Objectives:
Childhood is a unique stage in human life history, in which subadults have completed their weaning process but are still dependent on older individuals for survival. Although the importance of food provisioning during childhood has been intensively discussed, childhood diet in the past has rarely been studied in a systematic manner.
Methods:
In this study, a meta-analysis of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios of post-weaning children (PWC) in Holocene human populations around the world is presented. The isotope ratios of PWC were standardized with those of adult females and males in the same population, and they were analyzed in terms of the difference in subsistence.
Results:
Results of this study indicate that diets of PWC and adults were generally similar (most differences were within the range of ±1‰), which is consistent with the universal feature of food provisioning to PWC in humans. In hunter-gatherer populations, there is no significant difference between PWC and adult isotope ratios. In non-hunter-gatherer populations, however, PWC probably consumed significantly larger proportions of foods from lower trophic levels than did the adults, and such foods would be terrestrial C3 plants.
Conclusions:
Potential factors relating to the dietary differences among PWC and adults are presented from a perspective of balance between food provisioning and self-acquisition by PWC. Significant isotopic differences between PWC and adults in non-hunter-gatherer populations revealed in this study have implications for declined health during the subsistence transition in Holocene, isotopic studies using human tooth enamel, and "δ(15) N dip" of subadults after weaning.
Ethnographic evidence demonstrates that hunter–gatherer children may forage effectively enough to supplement an adult provisioned diet, where ecology, subsistence strategies, and social organization are conducive to juvenile participation. We use stable isotope measures (δ15N and δ13C) from bone collagen and serial-samples of dentinal collagen extracted from first molars to examine childhood dietary patterns among 24 individuals from the Late Holocene Central California site CA-ALA-554. We identify weaning age and early childhood dietary patterns, and find evidence for independent child foraging among 25% of the sample population (n = 6), the majority of whom lived during the high-stress Medieval Climatic Anomaly (1100–700 BP).
This article presents stable nitrogen and carbon isotopic analyses of diet at the Maya sites of Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro, Belize. This study, which provides important insight into social organization, trade, and subsistence economy for the Postclassic and Historic periods (ca. A.D. 900-1650), also expands our understanding of the distribution of stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes within coral reef food webs off coastal Belize. Marco Gonzalez and San Pedro represent the first documented ancient Maya populations whose diet consisted mostly of marine resources with a minimal reliance upon maize. Although these sites do not appear highly stratified, and there are no dietary differences between sexes or status, the inhabitants of Marco Gonzalez incorporated more mainland-terrestrial animals and maize into their diet than the people of San Pedro. This finding supports the postulated roles of these two settlements, where Marco Gonzalez had trade ties to the mainland site of Lamanai and San Pedro was a small fishing village.
Grindstones from Eva 2 and St. John, two of the earliest sites in northeastern South America and the southern Caribbean respectively, were subjected to starch grain analysis. Results of this study revealed that these stone artifacts were utilized to process a variety of cultivars such as maize (Zea mays), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), chili pepper (Capsicum spp.), achira (Canna spp.), legumes (Fabaceae), and yams (Dioscoreaceae), coupled with wild resources, most notably marunguey (Zamia spp.). Radiocarbon dates indicate that the use of plants identified at these two sites were much older than previously considered, going back to at least 7790 cal. BP at St. John and 5990 cal. BP at Eva 2. This new evidence showcases the importance of the Caribbean basin as an arena for early phytocultural dispersals. It also focuses attention on the role of navigation as a mechanism for crop diffusion in the Neotropics.
Grindstones from Eva 2 and St. John, two of the earliest sites in northeastern South America and the southern Caribbean respectively, were subjected to starch grain analysis. Results of this study revealed that these stone artifacts were utilized to process a variety of cultivars such as maize (Zea mays), sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), chili pepper (Capsicum spp.), achira (Canna spp.), legumes (Fabaceae), and yams (Dioscoreaceae), coupled with wild resources, most notably marunguey (Zamia spp.). Radiocarbon dates indicate that the use of plants identified at these two sites were much older than previously considered, going back to at least 7790 cal. BP at St. John and 5990 cal. BP at Eva 2. This new evidence showcases the importance of the Caribbean basin as an arena for early phytocultural dispersals. It also focuses attention on the role of navigation as a mechanism for crop diffusion in the Neotropics.
The use of stable carbon isotopes for diet reconstruction is predicated on the assumption that you are what you eat. In other words, the carbon isotopic composition of animal tissues is assumed to be a direct and constant function of the diet. Is this assumption valid? Precise dietary reconstruction requires as accurate knowledge of the isotopic composition of locally available dietary resources, as well as an adequate understanding of the effects of nutrition, environment, and physiology on the diet-tissue function (van der Merwe 1982, 1989; Chisholm 1989; Norr 1990; Matson and Chisholm 1991; Tieszen 1991; Ambrose 1992). There is a systematic but poorly defined difference between the isotopic composition of the consumer tissues and that of the diet (an enrichment factor, expressed as Δ diet-tissue). Given the isotopic composition of a specific tissue, that of the diet or of other tissues may be calculated if the Δ diet-tissue difference factors are known. The dietary proportions of isotopically distinct food resources (e.g., C3 vs C4, or C3 vs marine) have thus been calculated from the δ
13C value of bone collagen (Δ13Cd-co) and bone apatite carbonate (Δ13Cd-ca). Deviations from actual or assumed average δ
13C values for dietary endmembers, and incorrect values for diet-to-tissue isotopic relationships, will lead to errors in the estimation of consumption of specific classes of resources. Experiments and observations designed to determine the diet-to-collagen stable isotope functions (Δ13Cd-co) however, have provided widely different values.
The use of cultigens and wild plants by pre-contact populations is well established in all regions of the circum-Caribbean and Greater Antilles except for Cuba, the largest island in the Caribbean. We examine a population traditionally understood by Cuban archaeologists as " fisheregatherers " from the shell-matrix site of Canímar Abajo, Cuba to examine subsistence practices using a combination of starch evidence from dental calculus, aided by human bone collagen carbon and nitrogen isotope based probability analyses (Stable Isotope Analysis in R; SIAR). This dual analysis suggests that two chronologically distinct " fisheregatherer " Cuban populations (11 adult skeletons from the older cemetery component, 1380e800 BCE; 23 adult skeletons from the younger cemetery component, 360e950 CE) from Canímar Abajo used at least two species of cultigens (beans and maize and/or sweet potatoes) along with wild plant species and various readily available estuarine, marine and terrestrial animal resources.
Biogeochemical methods using stable isotopes and trace elements have been increasingly developed and applied to reconstruct modern and ancient breastfeeding and weaning practices of mammals, including humans, because they offer direct proxies for the dietary intake of subadults. Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes have been used to evaluate breast milk lipid, protein, and water intake, respectively. Carbon and sulfur isotopes have been used to estimate the content of weaning foods. The elemental concentrations of Sr and Ba in subadult tissues differ because of the dietary change during the weaning process. For analyses, various tissues have been used, such as hair, nail, blood, and feces for modern mammals and bone and teeth for ancient ones. Of these, trace element analysis of tooth enamel offers a good opportunity for the reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices of the more distant past at finer resolution, although further understanding of the metabolism of trace elements is necessary. There are various tissue- and element-specific advantages and disadvantages, and a combination of different proxies can illuminate practices from various viewpoints. Finally, applying the geochemical reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices to human ecology, primatology, and paleoanthropology is important; basic studies of the underlying physiological mechanisms and technical improvements in the analyses will further highlight avenues for future research. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
This thesis is concerned with how prehistoric infants were fed in different physical and cultural environments, and in particular what impact the economic, social, and epidemiological changes associated with the development of agriculture had on infant feeding practices. In order to examine these effects, stable isotope ratio analysis has been used to assess the duration of breastfeeding and weaning in a variety of prehistoric contexts. The first study is of Pitted Ware Culture hunter-gatherers at the site of Ajvide on Gotland, Sweden. Breastfeeding usually continued for at least two years, but there was some variation in supplementary foods, which is attributed to seasonal variations in resource availability. The second study analysed a number of Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites from south-east Poland. Breastfeeding duration varied both within and between sites and ranged from six months to five years. The third study found that the infant feeding practices of two Iron Age populations on Öland, Sweden, were very varied, and infants may have been fed differently depending on their social status. The fourth study is of the childhood diet in the Únětice Culture of south-west Poland. Individual diets changed little during the lifetime, suggesting that eventual adult identity was determined early in life. A small number of infants in the study were found to have breastfed for differing lengths of time. The final paper considers the health consequences of introducing animal milks into the infant diet in a prehistoric context, and finds that their availability is unlikely to have made it possible to safely wean infants earlier.
Comparison of the results from the four stable isotope studies to those of other published studies reveals that the modal age at the end of weaning was slightly lower in agricultural communities than hunter-gatherer communities, but the range of ages was similar. Weaning prior to the age of eighteen months was rare before the post-medieval period. It is argued that the gradual reduction in breastfeeding duration since the Neolithic, and the replacement of breastmilk with animal milk products, means that on the whole the development of agriculture probably served to increase infant morbidity and mortality.
The quality of bone collagen extracts is central to the14C dating and isotope palaeodietary analysis of bone. The intactness and purity of the extracted gelatin (“collagen”) is strongly dependent on the extent of diagenetic degradation, contamination and the type of extraction method. Possible chemical, elemental and isotopic parameters for the assessment of “collagen” quality are discussed. The most important distinction that can be made is the one between contaminated bone (mostly from temperate zones), and bone low in collagen content (mostly from arid and tropical zones). The latter shows more variability in all quality parameters than the former. The natural level of contamination is mostly so low that stable isotopic measurements are not impaired, although14C measurements can be. It is concluded that there is no unequivocal way to detect natural levels of contamination with the discussed parameters, although their use can identify many cases. In low “collagen” bone, the parameters can identify the great majority of problematic samples: although deviations in these parameters do not necessarily mean isotopic alterations, the increased background found in these samples makes most samples unusable.
The validity of using carbon isotopes in biological apatite from bone for dietary studies has been questioned because of diagenetic alterations and supposed exchange of carbon from the burial environment. Laboratory and natural experiments have been devised to test the integrity of carbon isotope ratios in biological apatite with respect to isotopic exchange of carbon with natural waters. The laboratory experiment subjected a sample of bone to a synthetic groundwater whose carbon isotopic composition had been adjusted to +9750‰. Analyses indicate that simple carbonates exchanged rapidly with the groundwater, but that the actual biological apatite exchanged very little, if any, of its carbon, even with 2 years exposure. The natural experiment involved analysis of mammoth and mastodon teeth that had been submerged in sea water for 11,000 years. With proper cleaning, the original dietary signals were well-preserved despite the long exposure to oceanic dissolved carbonate of much different isotopic composition. These experiments suggest that properly cleaned biological apatite is an appropriate analytical phase for dietary studies on bone or teeth as old as 10,000 years.
Paleodemography and paleopathology presuppose that direct relationships exist between statistics calculated from archaeological skeletal series (e.g., skeletal lesion frequencies and mean age at death) and the health status of the past populations that gave rise to the series. However, three fundamental conceptual problems confound the interpretation of such statistics: demographic non-stationarity, selective mortality, and unmeasured, individual-level heterogeneity in the risks of disease and death. Using simple models of the relationship between individual "frailty" and the hazard of death at each age, this paper explores the implications of these problems for archaeological interpretation. One conclusion is that the skeletal evidence pertaining to the transition from hunting-and-gathering to settled agriculture is equally consistent with an improvement in health and a deterioration in health resulting from the transition.
In this article we develop and apply a method for estimating fertility in paleodemographic study. The proportion D30+/D5+, generated from standard life table calculations, is used to estimate relative fertility rates for eight Woodland and Mississippian populations represented by skeletal series from west-central Illinois. The inferred pattern of fertility increase through time is then considered in the context of key variables that define diet, technology, and sedentism. We conclude that changes in diet or food preparation techniques are implicated in this demographic change. The absence of a significant increment in juvenile mortality in association with the elevated fertility rates suggests that these changes in fertility explain the regional population increase previously inferred from mortuary and habitation site densities.
This preliminary study investigates the diet of a population of humans (n = 28) recovered from a shell-matrix site of Canimar Abajo on the Canimar River, Matanzas Province, Cuba. The site is characterized by two cemetery levels separated by a layer of occupation/ritual/midden activity that lasted 1.5 ka. Stable C (δ13C) and N (δ15N) isotope analysis of human bone collagen samples obtained from individuals (7 infant/juveniles, and 21 adults) from both cemetery levels was conducted in order to reconstruct the diet of these two populations, investigate the relative importance of marine vs. terrestrial resources, and reveal any sex- and age-related distinctions in their food sources. Initial indications suggest that individuals from both cemetery levels consumed diets that were marine resource intensive but also supplemented with varied additions of terrestrial (mostly plant) resources. This supplementation is particularly evident in the later cemetery population. Though there are no significant differences in diet according to sex, there is a trophic level and terrestrial-based shift for breastfed and weaning infant/juveniles. The infant/juveniles showed evidence of being weaned through distinct δ15N enrichments and δ13C depletions over adult females.
Agriculture has long been regarded as an improvement in the human condition: Once Homo sapiens made the transition from foraging to farming in the Neolithic, health and nutrition improved, longevity increased, and work load declined. Recent study of archaeological human remains worldwide by biological anthropologists has shown this characterization of the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture to be incorrect. Contrary to earlier models, the adoption of agriculture involved an overall decline in oral and general health. This decline is indicated by elevated prevalence of various skeletal and dental pathological conditions and alterations in skeletal and dental growth patterns in prehistoric farmers compared with foragers. In addition, changes in food composition and preparation technology contributed to craniofacial and dental alterations, and activity levels and mobility decline resulted in a general decrease in skeletal robusticity. These findings indicate that the shift from food collection to...
Since its introduction in 19771, stable isotope analysis of bone collagen has been widely used to reconstruct aspects of prehistoric human and animal diets2–11. This method of dietary analysis is based on two well-established observations, and on an assumption that has never been tested. The first observation is that bone collagen 13C/12C and 15N/14N ratios reflect the corresponding isotope ratio of an animal's diet1–5,12. The second is that groups of foods have characteristically different 13C/12C and/or 15N/14N ratios13,14. Taken together, the two observations indicate that the isotope ratios of collagen in the bones of a living animal reflect the amounts of these groups of foods that the animal ate. Thus, it has been possible to use fresh bone collagen 13C/12C ratios to determine the relative consumption of C3 and C4 plants15–17, while 13C/12C and 15N/14N ratios have been used to distinguish between the use of marine and terrestrial foods14. The 15N/14N ratios of fresh bone collagen probably also reflect the use of leguminous and non-leguminous plants as food5, but this has not yet been demonstrated. Prehistoric consumption of these same groups of foods has been reconstructed from isotope ratios of collagen extracted from fossil bone1–11. Implicit in the application of the isotopic method to prehistoric material is the assumption that bone collagen isotope ratios have not been modified by postmortem processes. Here I present the first examination of the validity of this assumption. The results show that postmortem alteration of bone collagen isotope ratios does occur, but that it is possible to identify prehistoric bones whose collagen has not undergone such alteration.
Studies of prehistoric patterns of health and disease focus on interpretations of the evidence from hard tissue remains of past peoples. These interpretations are based on observations of living peoples and the sources of stress which may be expected to leave a record in their bones and teeth. One presumed source of stress that has received wide attention in the recent literature is weaning. The process of weaning is often associated with elevated risks of infant mortality and morbidity because infants no longer receive passive immunity from their mothers, and they are exposed to new sources of infection through the weaning diet. The process of weaning has also been tied to the duration of the contraceptive effects of nursing and the return of fecundity, which in turn provides information about birth spacing and population growth. Recently some of the basic assumptions about nursing and weaning, and their effects on morbidity, mortality and population growth, have been challenged, based on new technical and cross-cultural information. It is clear from the demographic literature that some studies based on skeletal samples tend to be too simplistic in terms of the causes of infant morbidity and mortality. This paper reviews current research which relates weaning and infant mortality to health and reproduction in past populations and evaluates studies of enamel hypoplasia and bone chemistry for reconstructing infant feeding practices in the past. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
This article presents the results of a study of infant diet at two Iron Age sites on the island of Öland, Sweden. The cemetery at Bjärby contained a large number of subadults who had survived the earliest years of life, whereas most individuals at Triberga had died by 6 months of age. To investigate whether differences in infant feeding could explain the different mortality rates, the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur stable isotope ratios of bone and tooth dentin collagen from the two sites were analyzed. Twenty-two samples from Triberga and 102 from Bjärby yielded data that could be included in the carbon and nitrogen analysis. Twelve samples from Triberga and 42 from Bjärby were included in the sulfur analysis. The results for carbon (δ(13) C: Triberga X = -18.8, s.d. = 1.1; Bjärby X = -19.8, s.d. = 0.4), nitrogen (δ(15) N: Triberga X = 12.9, s.d. = 1.5; Bjärby X = 13.4, s.d. = 1.4), and sulfur (δ(34) S: Triberga X = 8.1, s.d. = 1.1; Bjärby X = 5.8, s.d. = 1.3) suggest that diet was broadly similar at both sites and based on terrestrial resources. At Bjärby, females and high-status individuals consumed higher-trophic level protein than other males from early childhood onward. There was some indication that the contribution of marine resources to the diet may also have differed between the sexes at Triberga. No consistent differences in breast milk intake were observed between the two sites, but there was substantial variation at each. This variation may reflect an influence of gender and social status on infant feeding decisions. Am J Phys Anthropol 149:217-230, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Dental enamel hypoplasias are deficiencies in enamel thickness resulting from physiological perturbations (stress) during the secretory phase of amelogenesis. The results of a wide variety of experimental, clinical, and epidemiological studies strongly suggest that these defects and their associated histological abnormalities (such as accentuated stria of Retzius and Wilson bands) are relatively sensitive and nonspecific indicators of stress. Because of the inability of enamel to remodel, and the regular and ring-like nature of their development, these defects can provide an indelible, chronological record of stress during tooth crown formation. For these reasons, along with the ease with which they are studied, enamel hypoplasias have been increasingly employed as indicators of nutritional and disease status in paleopathology, and their study has begun to extend into other subdisciplines of physical anthropology.
Criteria are presented for the identification of diagenetic alteration of carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of bone and tooth collagen prepared by a widely used method. Measurements of collagen concentrations in tooth and bone, atomic C:N ratios, and carbon and nitrogen concentrations in collagen of 359 historic and prehistoric African humans, and modern and prehistoric East African non-human mammals are described. Carbon isotope ratios of collagen lipids from four bones are also presented. Compared to bone, whole teeth have significantly lower collagen concentrations, lower carbon and nitrogen concentrations in collagen, and similar C:N ratios. Carbon and nitrogen concentrations and C:N ratios are relatively constant over a wide range of collagen concentrations. However, prehistoric specimens with very low collagen concentrations have highly variable C:N ratios, very low carbon and nitrogen concentrations in collagen, and stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios unlike collagen. At the transition from well-preserved to poorly preserved collagen the most reliable indicator of collagen preservation is the concentration of carbon and nitrogen in collagen. Concentrations of C and N drop abruptly by an order of magnitude at this transition point. These attributes provide simple criteria for assessing sample quality. Since collagen preservation can vary greatly within prehistoric sites, these attributes should be reported for each specimen. Use of purification procedures that remove acid- and base-soluble contaminants and particulate matter (carbonates, fulvic acids, lipids, humic acids, sediments and rootlets) are recommended. Wider adoption of these procedures would insure comparability of results between laboratories, and permit independent and objective evaluation of sample preservation, and more precise dietary, climatic, and habitat interpretations of collagen isotopic analyses.
The controversy about the validity of using bone and tooth mineral (biological apatite) as an alternative sample material to collagen for stable carbon isotope analyses is briefly reviewed. Some of the apparent contradictions may have arisen as a result of the effects of different pretreatment methods, as well as the choice of tissue. Experimental results are presented which document the isotopic and mineralogical effects of 1 m acetic acid pretreatment on modern and fossil biological apatites. The data show that this procedure has marked effects on modern mineral. Prolonged reaction in 1 m acetic acid leads to recrystallization of bone apatite to brushite (dicalcium phosphate-dihydrate), suggesting that this treatment must be used cautiously for recent archaeological materials. Recrystallization was not observed for older fossil material; changes are rather due to elimination of calcite and the more soluble apatite crystallites. The results indicate that enamel provides the most consistent results. Accordingly, only enamel was used for an applied study of the diets of 1·8 Ma extinct primates from Swartkrans Cave, South Africa.
The influence of diet on the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in animals was investigated by analyzing animals grown in the laboratory on diets of constant nitrogen isotopic composition.
The isotopic composition of the nitrogen in an animal reflects the nitrogen isotopic composition of its diet. The δ^(15)N values of the whole bodies of animals are usually more positive than those of their diets. Different individuals of a species raised on the same diet can have significantly different δ^(15)N values. The variability of the relationship between the δ^(15)N values of animals and their diets is greater for different species raised on the same diet than for the same species raised on different diets. Different tissues of mice are also enriched in ^(15)N relative to the diet, with the difference between the δ^(15)N values of a tissue and the diet depending on both the kind of tissue and the diet involved. The δ^(15)N values of collagen and chitin, biochemical components that are often preserved in fossil animal remains, are also related to the δ^(15)N value of the diet.
The dependence of the δ^(15)N values of whole animals and their tissues and biochemical components on the δ^(15)N value of diet indicates that the isotopic composition of animal nitrogen can be used to obtain information about an animal's diet if its potential food sources had different δ^(15)N values. The nitrogen isotopic method of dietary analysis probably can be used to estimate the relative use of legumes vs non-legumes or of aquatic vs terrestrial organisms as food sources for extant and fossil animals. However, the method probably will not be applicable in those modern ecosystems in which the use of chemical fertilizers has influenced the distribution of nitrogen isotopes in food sources.
The isotopic method of dietary analysis was used to reconstruct changes in the diet of the human population that occupied the Tehuacan Valley of Mexico over a 7000 yr span. Variations in the δ^(15)C and δ^(15)N values of bone collagen suggest that C_4 and/or CAM plants (presumably mostly corn) and legumes (presumably mostly beans) were introduced into the diet much earlier than suggested by conventional archaeological analysis.