Premium
Osteoarthritis in Siberia's Cis‐Baikal: Skeletal indicators of hunter‐gatherer adaptation and cultural change
Author(s) -
Lieverse Angela R.,
Weber Andrzej W.,
Bazaliiskiy Vladimir Ivanovich,
Goriunova Olga Ivanovna,
Savel'ev Nikolai Aleksandrovich
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.20479
Subject(s) - hiatus , subsistence agriculture , holocene , adaptive strategies , hunter gatherer , geography , foraging , adaptation (eye) , ecology , demography , ethnology , archaeology , biology , history , sociology , paleontology , neuroscience , agriculture
This examination of osteoarthritis in Siberia's Cis‐Baikal region focuses on the reconstruction of mid‐Holocene mobility and activity patterns with particular interest in an alleged fifth millennium BC biocultural hiatus. Five cemetery populations—–two representing the pre‐hiatus Kitoi culture (6800–4900 BC) and three the post‐hiatus Serovo‐Glaskovo (4200–1000 BC)—are considered. The objective is to investigate osteoarthritic prevalence and distribution (patterning) within and among these populations in order to reconstruct mobility and activity patterns among the Cis‐Baikal foragers, and to test for possible disparities that may reflect differing adaptive strategies. The data reveal that levels of activity remained relatively constant throughout the mid‐Holocene but that mobility and specific activity patterns did not. Although results are consistent with the current understanding of distinct Kitoi and Serovo‐Glaskovo subsistence regimes, specifically the lower residential mobility and narrower resource base of the former, they also draw attention to adaptive characteristics shared by all occupants of the Cis‐Baikal. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.