Infant/Weanling Mortality in Tennessee's Prehistory: A Comparative Approach

Although there is general agreement among many researchers concerning the decline in health and nutrition which accompanied the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture, few studies have directly addressed the differences in infant\weanling mortality between these two distinct cultural adaptational strategies. This research focuses on infant mortality as an indicator of general health and nutritional status. Results from the present study, which utilizes more than 1,200 skeletal samples from eight sites, indicate a significant difference in infant mortality between prehistoric hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists in Tennessee.

Demographic comparisons were made between six Archaic sites and two Mississippian sites using the mortality profile method. Non-statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were noted between the Archaic sites having shell middens and those without. These differences, while not significant, are believed to be due to a combination of better bone preservation in shell middens and density dependant diseases affecting individuals in the 0-5 year age intervals at Archaic summer base camps.

Statistically significant differences in infant\weanling mortality were found between the Archaic and Mississippian sites. This difference suggests a better health and nutritional status for the Archaic hunter-gatherers than for the later Mississippian agriculturalists. The higher infant\weanling mortality among the Mississippian peoples is believed to result from an intensive reliance on a high carbohydrate, low protein maize diet and density dependant diseases brought about by population increase and sedentism.

Results from a paleopathological analysis of the remains utilized in the study show a statistically significant difference in frequencies of porotic hyperostosis between the Archaic and Mississippian periods. This pathology is used as and indicator of nutritional stress and is the result of iron deficiency anemia. Previous research has shown a correlation between porotic hyperostosis and maize reliance. The results show a much higher frequency of porotic hyperostosis in the Mississippian sample compared to the Archaic series analyzed. These findings support the conclusions drawn from the paleodemographic results.