C Mcfadden
Biographic Data
| ID | 49333 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C Mcfadden |
| GIVEN NAMES | C |
| FAMILY NAME | Mcfadden |
| SIGNATURE | MCFADDEN C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9515-5392 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 94 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
From Optimism to Opportunity
The Osteological Paradox has had an immeasurable impact on bioarchaeology. It has spurred introspection, increased scientific rigor, and encouraged a suite of new and valuable approaches and methods to deal with the challenges it raises. Contrastingly, it has also been perceived as insurmountable, or a problem that simply needs to be acknowledged but not dealt with. In this synthesis, we discuss past and current approaches to the Osteological Par…
Modelling of Epidemics Suggests Over 96 per cent Population Loss on Aneityum, Vanuatu, Following European Contact
The impacts of European contact on Pacific Islands populations are widely recognized, yet the mechanisms and scale of depopulation are not fully understood. Historical records of disease outbreaks and mortality have, with good cause, been treated with some scepticism, while estimates of population size prior to European contact are scarce and rely on potentially biased archaeological evidence. For the island of Aneityum, Vanuatu, we have used bas…
Hypomineralization disorder in tropical Southeast Asia during the agricultural revolution
This paper presents evidence for hypomineralization disorders (rickets and osteomalacia) in non-adults at Man Bac, a Neolithic site from northern Vietnam dated to 4000-3500BP, contributing to the well-described disease burden at the site that includes scurvy, treponemal disease, thalassemia, and malaria. Forty-four non-adults (<20 years of age-at-death) were assessed for macroscopic and radiographic evidence for hypomineralization disorders. Diff…
A Comparative Study of Norse Palaeodemography in the North Atlantic
Our core aim is to compare the population dynamics of homeland and diaspora Norse communities in the North Atlantic through the lens of preadult representation. Our approach is to use the D0/14 palaeodemographic index to compare and contrast data sourced from twenty-one archaeological sites in the North Atlantic, including Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland that represent both homeland and frontier Norse communities including …
Nutritional deficiency and ecological stress in the Middle to Final western Jōmon
Despite significant research, the direct and indirect causes of a population decline in the eponymous foragers of the Late Jōmon period (c. 4500-2300 BP) in Japan remains undetermined. Here, the authors examine the impact of nutritional stress, using scurvy as a case study, on Middle and a Late/Final Jōmon populations. While an increase in the prevalence of scurvy between the time periods is apparent, no associated change in age at death was obse…
From the Ground Up
Population dynamics form a crucial component of human narratives in the past. Population responses and adaptations not only tell us about the human past but also offer insights into the present and future. Though an area of substantial interest, it is also one of often limited evidence. As such, traditional techniques from demography and anthropology must be adapted considerably to accommodate the available archaeological and ethnohistoric data a…
Exploring associations between presence of skeletal indicators of disease and sub-adult mortality
Skeletal indicators of disease are frequently used in bioarcheological research as a proxy of the frailty of an individual preceding death. Whilst certain indicators have been established as being associated with excess mortality in adults, these relationships are not necessarily replicated in sub-adults, nor are they consistent in strength of association across sites or time periods. Further, the influence of co-morbid indicators of disease have…
Comparisons of Age-at-Death Distributions among Extinct Hominins and Extant Nonhuman Primates Indicate Normal Mortality
Identity and community structure in Neolithic Man Bac, northern Vietnam
Investigating the implications of localised hypoplasia of the primary canine in the context of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis
Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way r…
Assessing the maternal risks associated with short stature in ancient Southeast Asia
The maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia has been an area of study not yet addressed in bioarchaeological research due to the challenges associated with evaluating it and the lack of tools available. This study aims to better our knowledge of the maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia by investigating whether there is a relationship between maternal mortality rates and a known maternal risk factor, stature, which can be estimated …
Rethinking the age and unity of large naturalistic animal forms in early Western Arnhem Land Rock Art, Australia
The analysis of style is a widespread method for describing classes of rock art and plays a significant role in forming a chronology for Arnhem Land rock art assemblages. A longstanding issue identified in Arnhem Land rock art has been the ill-defined nature of the ‘Large Naturalistic Style’ (LNS) as originally proposed by rock art researcher George Chaloupka. We have re-examined the distribution, frequency and the stylistic design attributes of …
A paleoepidemiological approach to the osteological paradox
OBJECTIVES: The Osteological Paradox posits that skeletal lesions may differentially be interpreted as representing resilience or frailty. However, specific consideration of the etiologies and demographic distributions of individual skeletal indicators can inform the criteria on which to differentiate stress, frailty, and resilience. Adopting a life history approach and adaptive plasticity model, this study proposes a framework for the analysis a…
A stabilized maternal mortality rate estimator for biased skeletal samples
This paper seeks to provide a stabilized (i.e. less vulnerable to differences in sex representation) equation for estimating maternal mortality for biased skeletal samples. The stabilized equation is developed and tested on the United Nations data used to develop the original method (McFadden and Oxenham, Current Anthropology, 60(1), 141-146), and is applied to 16 bioarchaeological samples from mainland Southeast Asia. First-order correlations an…
Ageing the elderly
This study reports on the use of a proportional measure to estimate the age-at-death distribution of an assemblage and, when combined with a seriation method, additionally estimate the age-at-death of individuals. Traditional methods of estimating age-at-death suffer from a number of issues, including decreasing accuracy with increasing age, age mimicry of the reference population, and difficulty balancing accuracy with precision. A new method is…
The Paleodemographic Measure of Maternal Mortality and a Multifaceted Approach to Maternal Health
This study aims to develop a way to estimate the maternal mortality rate (women per 100,000 who die during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days) of past populations and describe the potential practical applications of such a measure. Using age-at-death data and maternal mortality rates for 76 countries from the United Nations database for the years 1990-1995, we examined the correlation between the rates and female-to-male death ratios during…
The impacts of underenumeration and age estimation error on the D0–14/D ratio and palaeodemographic measures
Rate of natural population increase as a paleodemographic measure of growth
Detection of temporospatially localized growth in ancient Southeast Asia using human skeletal remains
The D0‐14/D ratio
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to develop a new subadult-adult ratio for application to sites with good infant representation and to produce an equation to estimate the total fertility rate for a population based on the age-at-death ratio. A new approach is required as current methods exclude the 0-4 years age category due to presumed underenumeration of infants. While this is true for some skeletal samples, others experience good …
Revisiting the P henice technique sex classification results reported by M ac L aughlin and B ruce (1990)
Phenice (Am J Phys Anthropol 30 (1969):297–301) reported a success rate of 96% for his method of sex determination based on three morphological features of the pelvis. Numerous studies have tested and evaluated the method with affirmative results. The results of the study by MacLaughlin and Bruce (J Forensic Sci 35 (1990):1384–1392) were inconsistent with other studies, reporting far lower rates of accuracy and a greater degree of interobserver e…
A paleoepidemiological approach to the osteological paradox
OBJECTIVES: The Osteological Paradox posits that skeletal lesions may differentially be interpreted as representing resilience or frailty. However, specific consideration of the etiologies and demographic distributions of individual skeletal indicators can inform the criteria on which to differentiate stress, frailty, and resilience. Adopting a life history approach and adaptive plasticity model, this study proposes a framework for the analysis a…
The Paleodemographic Measure of Maternal Mortality and a Multifaceted Approach to Maternal Health
This study aims to develop a way to estimate the maternal mortality rate (women per 100,000 who die during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days) of past populations and describe the potential practical applications of such a measure. Using age-at-death data and maternal mortality rates for 76 countries from the United Nations database for the years 1990-1995, we examined the correlation between the rates and female-to-male death ratios during…
The D0‐14/D ratio
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to develop a new subadult-adult ratio for application to sites with good infant representation and to produce an equation to estimate the total fertility rate for a population based on the age-at-death ratio. A new approach is required as current methods exclude the 0-4 years age category due to presumed underenumeration of infants. While this is true for some skeletal samples, others experience good …
Detection of temporospatially localized growth in ancient Southeast Asia using human skeletal remains
A stabilized maternal mortality rate estimator for biased skeletal samples
This paper seeks to provide a stabilized (i.e. less vulnerable to differences in sex representation) equation for estimating maternal mortality for biased skeletal samples. The stabilized equation is developed and tested on the United Nations data used to develop the original method (McFadden and Oxenham, Current Anthropology, 60(1), 141-146), and is applied to 16 bioarchaeological samples from mainland Southeast Asia. First-order correlations an…
Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way r…
Rate of natural population increase as a paleodemographic measure of growth
Rethinking the age and unity of large naturalistic animal forms in early Western Arnhem Land Rock Art, Australia
The analysis of style is a widespread method for describing classes of rock art and plays a significant role in forming a chronology for Arnhem Land rock art assemblages. A longstanding issue identified in Arnhem Land rock art has been the ill-defined nature of the ‘Large Naturalistic Style’ (LNS) as originally proposed by rock art researcher George Chaloupka. We have re-examined the distribution, frequency and the stylistic design attributes of …
The impacts of underenumeration and age estimation error on the D0–14/D ratio and palaeodemographic measures
Exploring associations between presence of skeletal indicators of disease and sub-adult mortality
Skeletal indicators of disease are frequently used in bioarcheological research as a proxy of the frailty of an individual preceding death. Whilst certain indicators have been established as being associated with excess mortality in adults, these relationships are not necessarily replicated in sub-adults, nor are they consistent in strength of association across sites or time periods. Further, the influence of co-morbid indicators of disease have…
Identity and community structure in Neolithic Man Bac, northern Vietnam
Revisiting the P henice technique sex classification results reported by M ac L aughlin and B ruce (1990)
Phenice (Am J Phys Anthropol 30 (1969):297–301) reported a success rate of 96% for his method of sex determination based on three morphological features of the pelvis. Numerous studies have tested and evaluated the method with affirmative results. The results of the study by MacLaughlin and Bruce (J Forensic Sci 35 (1990):1384–1392) were inconsistent with other studies, reporting far lower rates of accuracy and a greater degree of interobserver e…
Assessing the maternal risks associated with short stature in ancient Southeast Asia
The maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia has been an area of study not yet addressed in bioarchaeological research due to the challenges associated with evaluating it and the lack of tools available. This study aims to better our knowledge of the maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia by investigating whether there is a relationship between maternal mortality rates and a known maternal risk factor, stature, which can be estimated …
Hypomineralization disorder in tropical Southeast Asia during the agricultural revolution
This paper presents evidence for hypomineralization disorders (rickets and osteomalacia) in non-adults at Man Bac, a Neolithic site from northern Vietnam dated to 4000-3500BP, contributing to the well-described disease burden at the site that includes scurvy, treponemal disease, thalassemia, and malaria. Forty-four non-adults (<20 years of age-at-death) were assessed for macroscopic and radiographic evidence for hypomineralization disorders. Diff…
Nutritional deficiency and ecological stress in the Middle to Final western Jōmon
Despite significant research, the direct and indirect causes of a population decline in the eponymous foragers of the Late Jōmon period (c. 4500-2300 BP) in Japan remains undetermined. Here, the authors examine the impact of nutritional stress, using scurvy as a case study, on Middle and a Late/Final Jōmon populations. While an increase in the prevalence of scurvy between the time periods is apparent, no associated change in age at death was obse…
Investigating the implications of localised hypoplasia of the primary canine in the context of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis
Ageing the elderly
This study reports on the use of a proportional measure to estimate the age-at-death distribution of an assemblage and, when combined with a seriation method, additionally estimate the age-at-death of individuals. Traditional methods of estimating age-at-death suffer from a number of issues, including decreasing accuracy with increasing age, age mimicry of the reference population, and difficulty balancing accuracy with precision. A new method is…
Revisiting the P henice technique sex classification results reported by M ac L aughlin and B ruce (1990)
Phenice (Am J Phys Anthropol 30 (1969):297–301) reported a success rate of 96% for his method of sex determination based on three morphological features of the pelvis. Numerous studies have tested and evaluated the method with affirmative results. The results of the study by MacLaughlin and Bruce (J Forensic Sci 35 (1990):1384–1392) were inconsistent with other studies, reporting far lower rates of accuracy and a greater degree of interobserver e…
The impacts of underenumeration and age estimation error on the D0–14/D ratio and palaeodemographic measures
Rate of natural population increase as a paleodemographic measure of growth
Detection of temporospatially localized growth in ancient Southeast Asia using human skeletal remains
The D0‐14/D ratio
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to develop a new subadult-adult ratio for application to sites with good infant representation and to produce an equation to estimate the total fertility rate for a population based on the age-at-death ratio. A new approach is required as current methods exclude the 0-4 years age category due to presumed underenumeration of infants. While this is true for some skeletal samples, others experience good …
Ageing the elderly
This study reports on the use of a proportional measure to estimate the age-at-death distribution of an assemblage and, when combined with a seriation method, additionally estimate the age-at-death of individuals. Traditional methods of estimating age-at-death suffer from a number of issues, including decreasing accuracy with increasing age, age mimicry of the reference population, and difficulty balancing accuracy with precision. A new method is…
The Paleodemographic Measure of Maternal Mortality and a Multifaceted Approach to Maternal Health
This study aims to develop a way to estimate the maternal mortality rate (women per 100,000 who die during pregnancy, childbirth, or within 42 days) of past populations and describe the potential practical applications of such a measure. Using age-at-death data and maternal mortality rates for 76 countries from the United Nations database for the years 1990-1995, we examined the correlation between the rates and female-to-male death ratios during…
Rethinking the age and unity of large naturalistic animal forms in early Western Arnhem Land Rock Art, Australia
The analysis of style is a widespread method for describing classes of rock art and plays a significant role in forming a chronology for Arnhem Land rock art assemblages. A longstanding issue identified in Arnhem Land rock art has been the ill-defined nature of the ‘Large Naturalistic Style’ (LNS) as originally proposed by rock art researcher George Chaloupka. We have re-examined the distribution, frequency and the stylistic design attributes of …
A paleoepidemiological approach to the osteological paradox
OBJECTIVES: The Osteological Paradox posits that skeletal lesions may differentially be interpreted as representing resilience or frailty. However, specific consideration of the etiologies and demographic distributions of individual skeletal indicators can inform the criteria on which to differentiate stress, frailty, and resilience. Adopting a life history approach and adaptive plasticity model, this study proposes a framework for the analysis a…
A stabilized maternal mortality rate estimator for biased skeletal samples
This paper seeks to provide a stabilized (i.e. less vulnerable to differences in sex representation) equation for estimating maternal mortality for biased skeletal samples. The stabilized equation is developed and tested on the United Nations data used to develop the original method (McFadden and Oxenham, Current Anthropology, 60(1), 141-146), and is applied to 16 bioarchaeological samples from mainland Southeast Asia. First-order correlations an…
Identity and community structure in Neolithic Man Bac, northern Vietnam
Investigating the implications of localised hypoplasia of the primary canine in the context of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis
Temporal trends in the Colonisation of the Pacific
The colonisation of eastern parts of the Pacific Islands was the last phase in the preindustrial expansion of the human species. Given the scale and challenges of the endeavour it is unsurprising that scholars have long been interested in understanding the conditions that drove and supported the exploration and settlement of this vast region. There has been speculation as to the influence of demographic factors, either as drivers or in some way r…
Assessing the maternal risks associated with short stature in ancient Southeast Asia
The maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia has been an area of study not yet addressed in bioarchaeological research due to the challenges associated with evaluating it and the lack of tools available. This study aims to better our knowledge of the maternal experience in ancient Southeast Asia by investigating whether there is a relationship between maternal mortality rates and a known maternal risk factor, stature, which can be estimated …
Exploring associations between presence of skeletal indicators of disease and sub-adult mortality
Skeletal indicators of disease are frequently used in bioarcheological research as a proxy of the frailty of an individual preceding death. Whilst certain indicators have been established as being associated with excess mortality in adults, these relationships are not necessarily replicated in sub-adults, nor are they consistent in strength of association across sites or time periods. Further, the influence of co-morbid indicators of disease have…
Comparisons of Age-at-Death Distributions among Extinct Hominins and Extant Nonhuman Primates Indicate Normal Mortality
From the Ground Up
Population dynamics form a crucial component of human narratives in the past. Population responses and adaptations not only tell us about the human past but also offer insights into the present and future. Though an area of substantial interest, it is also one of often limited evidence. As such, traditional techniques from demography and anthropology must be adapted considerably to accommodate the available archaeological and ethnohistoric data a…
Hypomineralization disorder in tropical Southeast Asia during the agricultural revolution
This paper presents evidence for hypomineralization disorders (rickets and osteomalacia) in non-adults at Man Bac, a Neolithic site from northern Vietnam dated to 4000-3500BP, contributing to the well-described disease burden at the site that includes scurvy, treponemal disease, thalassemia, and malaria. Forty-four non-adults (<20 years of age-at-death) were assessed for macroscopic and radiographic evidence for hypomineralization disorders. Diff…
A Comparative Study of Norse Palaeodemography in the North Atlantic
Our core aim is to compare the population dynamics of homeland and diaspora Norse communities in the North Atlantic through the lens of preadult representation. Our approach is to use the D0/14 palaeodemographic index to compare and contrast data sourced from twenty-one archaeological sites in the North Atlantic, including Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, and Greenland that represent both homeland and frontier Norse communities including …
Nutritional deficiency and ecological stress in the Middle to Final western Jōmon
Despite significant research, the direct and indirect causes of a population decline in the eponymous foragers of the Late Jōmon period (c. 4500-2300 BP) in Japan remains undetermined. Here, the authors examine the impact of nutritional stress, using scurvy as a case study, on Middle and a Late/Final Jōmon populations. While an increase in the prevalence of scurvy between the time periods is apparent, no associated change in age at death was obse…
Modelling of Epidemics Suggests Over 96 per cent Population Loss on Aneityum, Vanuatu, Following European Contact
The impacts of European contact on Pacific Islands populations are widely recognized, yet the mechanisms and scale of depopulation are not fully understood. Historical records of disease outbreaks and mortality have, with good cause, been treated with some scepticism, while estimates of population size prior to European contact are scarce and rely on potentially biased archaeological evidence. For the island of Aneityum, Vanuatu, we have used bas…
From Optimism to Opportunity
The Osteological Paradox has had an immeasurable impact on bioarchaeology. It has spurred introspection, increased scientific rigor, and encouraged a suite of new and valuable approaches and methods to deal with the challenges it raises. Contrastingly, it has also been perceived as insurmountable, or a problem that simply needs to be acknowledged but not dealt with. In this synthesis, we discuss past and current approaches to the Osteological Par…
Demography (14 works) · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies (13 works) · Population (12 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Geography (10 works) · Demography (9 works) · Biology (8 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Paleopathology and ancient diseases (7 works) · Mathematics (6 works)