Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1983

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Anthropology

Major Professor

Fred H. Smith, Walter Klippel

Committee Members

Richard Jantz, David Lipscomb

Abstract

Skeletal samples from three archaeological periods, the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian from the Tennessee River Valley were studied for physiological childhood stress using the following dental stress indicators: mean tooth size, fluctuating dental asymmetry, pathological enamel bands, and microscopic enamel hypoplasias. Two avenues of investigation were taken. The first tested for differences in the frequencies of stress episodes between mature and subadult individuals within each time period. It was predicted that young individuals would exhibit a greater number of dental defects than their surviving cohorts. In the second phase of the research it was hypothesized that physiological stress increased through time from the Archaic to the Mississippian. The prediction was grounded in the assumption that as population density increased through time in the Southeastern United States food resources were depleted and malnutrition and rates of disease increased. Each time period is discussed in reference to population increase, disease rates, and malnutrition.

Younger individuals were found to have more variation in tooth size of certain teeth than older individuals. This is discussed with reference to two viewpoints. The first suggests that a greater amount of variation exists in the younger group because these individuals are composed of two distinct subgroups. One purportedly suffered stress during fetal development when tooth size is fixed. and the other suffered stress later in their development. Stabilizing selection may also explain these findings. If stabilizing selection was operative then the usefulness of mean tooth size differences between age-at-death groups as a measure of stress is considerably diminished.

There were no differences in the means of younger individuals and older individuals for fluctuating asymmetry, pathological enamel bands, and hypoplasias.

Pathological enamel bands supported the thesis of increased stress through time. However, the results from fluctuating dental asymmetry and microscopic hypoplasias were mixed and difficult to explain. With reservations, the hypothesis of increased stress through time is accepted based on the findings from the pathological bands.

The clinical basis for each dental stress indicator is reviewed. It is concluded that all of the stress indicators need further examination and refinement. Although pathological bands have the best clinical support of all the indicators, modern statistical techniques have yet to be applied in research on their etiology. Hypoplasias are suggested to be of little value, but a refinement of definition may prove them otherwise. Dental asymmetry is suggested to have questionable meaning. Finally, mean tooth size differences between age groups also need further testing

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