Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
fever, severe diarrhea, intestinal bleeding and anemia), schistosomiasis or bilharzia (bladder
wall flatworm parasite), and a hydatid (tapeworm) cyst in the lung. From a cultural contex-
tual viewpoint, her high status evidently did not buffer her from life's maladies, particularly
as the parasitic involvement evident in her body is clinically associated with poor community
hygiene. Among her discomforts, she would have had a particularly difficult time breathing.
This would have been a difficult professional burden as she apparently was an esteemed
chantress, that is, a professional singer.
Case Studies in Bioarchaeological Problem Solving: The Large Sample
Case Study: The Sudanese Nubia
The best way to explain the process is by example. A fitting beginning is to illustrate how
a single measure of health stress, cribra orbitalia, functions as a tool of inquiry. Equally fitting
is a case study from the archaeological context that generated much of the pioneer bio-
archaeological research (Mittler and Van Gerven, 1994).
Nubia, or the Kingdom of Kush, is a culture from classical antiquity that straddled the Nile
River between what is now Aswan in modern Egypt and Khartoum in Sudan. Nubians from
the site of Kulubnarti (
Figure 7.5
a) were sedentary small-scale agro-pastoralists characterized
by a high-carbohydrate (millet, sorghum, vegetables) and low-protein (domesticated goats)
diet (
Turner et al., 2006
). The sample at the time of this study (
Adams et al., 1999
) was divided
into two temporal groups: Early Christian (~550
e
750 A.D.) (170 crania) characterized by
centralized political authority and Late or Terminal Christian (~750
e
1500 A.D.) (164 crania)
characterized by local political autonomy. The two temporal samples were compared to each
other as well as by age and sex.
Mittler and Van Gerven scored cribra orbitalia as present
e
absent and active (porotic,
sieve-like) or healed (smooth lamellar texture, pores bridged by bone). The authors had
a large sample and opted to divide the sample into six subadult age categories by years
(0
e
1, 2
e
3, 4
e
6, 7
e
9, 10
e
12, 13
e
15) and five sexable adult categories (16
e
20, 21
e
30,
31
e
40, 41
e
50, 51
). Studies with smaller sample sizes may need to collapse age categories.
If that is necessary, care should be taken to not obscure the weaning age (circa 2
e
5) as it is
associated epidemiologically with high mortality.
16
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16
During this critical stage in life, small children are increasingly reliant on foods that may be raw,
undercooked, and bacteria-laden. They are also more socially and physically independent, which increases
the likelihood of physical contact with unhygienic objects or places. With a still immature immune system,
reactive responses to toxins or pathogens may be inflammatory or purgative (weanling diarrhea) resulting
in dehydration, malnutrition, and early death. In many marginal subsistence contexts, acute weanling
diarrhea is endemic (
Scrimshaw et al., 1968
). Identifying chronic illness in this age-at-death category speaks
volumes about community health stress. Chronic conditions also strongly co-associate with adult
age-at-death. That is, severity increases with age. Adult age categories should have a firm upper age limit
for the easiest category to age: the young adult. There is a lot of living between 18 years and 35 years of age;
a sample biased in the 18
e
26 years age-at-death category may indeed have a different disease prevalence
than one biased between 25 and 35 years of age. Perceived subsistence or settlement differences may
actually be sample differences in median age-at-death. Always acknowledge the possibility of sampling
error, particularly if the sample size is small, less than 75 or 50 for example.
