A health crisis during the Japanese Medieval Period: A new paleodemographic perspective

OBJECTIVE

To test the hypothesis that the "Little Ice Age" (LIA) (in Japan, ˜1440 - 1730 CE) co-occurred with unique age-at-death patterns.

MATERIALS

810 adult human skeletons from the early Medieval Period (EMP) of Japan, which are contemporaneous with the Medieval Warm Period (10th - mid 13th century AD), and the late Medieval Period (LMP) and Edo Period, which are contemporary with the LIA.

METHODS

Age at death and sex was determined for each skeleton and demographic profiles of the Yayoi Period (5th century BC - 3rd century AD), EMP, LMP, and Edo site samples were compared. Paleopathological data from previously published reports were evaluated.

RESULTS

The EMP had the highest mortality among young adults. Longevity increased in the samples (LMP and Edo) contemporaneous with the LIA.

CONCLUSIONS

EMP early age-at-death was the result of poor community health, violent death, and frequent large-scale natural catastrophes. The LMP and Edo Period samples have an older age-at-death pattern and higher frequency of stress markers, argued to be a consequence of a colder climate.

SIGNIFICANCE

This study is the first to synthesize paleodemographic and paleopathological data on a large scale to assess the possible effects of the Little Ice Age in Japan.

LIMITATIONS

Varying skeletal preservation and focus on adult skeletons reduces the ability to evaluate health throughout the life span.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Analysis of nonadult remains and multiple health indicators will likely shed more light on the effects of the Little Ice Age in Japan.

Valkyries: Was gender equality high in the Scandinavian periphery since Viking times? Evidence from enamel hypoplasia and height ratios

Scandinavian countries currently have very high values of female autonomy. Was this already the case in Viking Times? In this study, we trace the roots of gender equality in the Scandinavian periphery over the past two millennia. We evaluate and recommend a new measure of early gender equality: relative enamel hypoplasia values of males and females. This new indicator allows us to trace relative health and nutritional equality, using archaeological evidence. We find that Scandinavian women in the rural periphery already had relatively good health and nutritional values during the Viking era and the medieval period thereafter. The corresponding value is 0.8 equality advantage for Scandinavian women, whereas in the rest of Europe most values fall in a band around 1.2 ratio units. This suggests that the currently high gender equality had a precedence during the Middle Ages.

An assessment of postcranial indices, ratios, and body mass versus eco-geographical variables of prehistoric Jomon, Yayoi agriculturalists, and Kumejima Islanders of Japan

OBJECTIVES

We explore variations in body and limb proportions of the Jomon hunter-gatherers (14,000-2500 BP), the Yayoi agriculturalists (2500-1700 BP) of Japan, and the Kumejima Islanders of the Ryukyus (1600-1800 AD) with 11 geographically diverse skeletal postcranial samples from Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America using brachial-crural indices, femur head-breadth-to-femur length ratio, femur head-breadth-to-lower-limb-length ratio, and body mass as indicators of phenotypic climatic adaptation. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that variation in limb proportions seen in Jomon, Yayoi, and Kumejima is a complex interaction of genetic adaptation; development and allometric constraints; selection, gene flow and genetic drift with changing cultural factors (i.e., nutrition) and climate.

METHODS

The skeletal data (1127 individuals) were subjected to principle components analysis, Manly's permutation multiple regression tests, and Relethford-Blangero analysis.

RESULTS

The results of Manly's tests indicate that body proportions and body mass are significantly correlated with latitude, and minimum and maximum temperatures while limb proportions were not significantly correlated with these climatic variables. Principal components plots separated "climatic zones:" tropical, temperate, and arctic populations. The indigenous Jomon showed cold-adapted body proportions and warm-adapted limb proportions. Kumejima showed cold-adapted body proportions and limbs. The Yayoi adhered to the Allen-Bergmann expectation of cold-adapted body and limb proportions. Relethford-Blangero analysis showed that Kumejima experienced gene flow indicated by high observed variances while Jomon experienced genetic drift indicated by low observed variances.

CONCLUSIONS

The complex interaction of evolutionary forces and development/nutritional constraints are implicated in the mismatch of limb and body proportions.

Sex differences of dental pathology in early modern samurai and commoners at Kokura in Japan

So-called "Ohaguro", teeth blackening, in the married females was a general custom regardless of class in the early modern period. As a result, Ohaguro was thought to have enhanced the acid resistance of tooth substance and tightened gingiva and prevented tooth morbidity due to periodontal disease. For investigation into the influence of Ohaguro, the skeletal remains of early modern samurai and commoners at Kokura were examined for differences in the dental pathology based on sex. Though females from archeological sites have significantly more carious teeth and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) than males in the previous studies, the prevalence of caries and AMTL in males was higher than in females among the early modern samurai and commoners in Kokura. The efficacies of Ohaguro may influence the good dental health of females. On the other hand, as females were considered inferior to males under the feudal system in Japan, males, including children, might tend to consume more nutritious foods compared to females. However, those foods are certainly not better with regard to dental health, since those foods are more highly cariogenic. These factors may have caused higher caries and AMTL prevalence among males compared to females in early modern Kokura.

A bioarchaeological analysis of oral and physiological health on the south coast of New Guinea

OBJECTIVES

The south coast of New Guinea has a complex prehistory known for its exchange systems that linked distinct cultural groups living along the coast, inland, and on offshore islands. Here we compare the palaeohealth of two relatively contemporaneous skeletal samples from the south coast of New Guinea (850-200 BP) that were from two ecologically different sites (one inland and one offshore island) and likely represent distinct cultural groups. We aim to elucidate health patterns that may provide information about the specific lifeways and quality of life of each community.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Oral conditions (caries, calculus, alveolar lesions, and antemortem tooth loss [AMTL]) were analyzed macroscopically to assess possible intra- and inter-population variation in oral and physiological health. The frequency of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) was also used as a nonspecific indicator of stress to assess childhood health at each site.

RESULTS

The inhabitants from the small offshore island of Motupore, thought to be associated with Austronesian-speaking Motu tribes, displayed different patterns of oral pathological conditions (more carious lesions on the tooth crown and calculus) and LEH (lower frequencies) compared with inland people residing at the site of Nebira.

DISCUSSION

It is suggested that the causes for the variation in oral and physiological health were likely multifactorial and potentially associated with variables such as the ecological and geographical settings of the sites, cultural differences, infectious disease, differential fertility and, potentially, diet. This research provides previously unknown information about possible culturally-moderated practices that affected health in the past. Am J Phys Anthropol 160:414-426, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.