Archaeological Amerindian and Eskimo cranioskeletal size variation along coastal western North America

Relation to climate, the reconstructed diet high in marine animal foods, and demographic stress

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12371801
AutoresFrancis Ivanhoe (University of California, Berkeley, autor de correspondencia), Philip W Chu (University of California, Berkeley), James A Bennyhoff (University of California, Berkeley)
Año1998
Volumen8
Número3
Páginas135-179
Fecha de publicación1998-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1047-482X • E-ISSN: 1099-1212
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/(sici)1099-1212(199805/06)8:3<135::aid-oa408>3.0.co;2-4
OpenAlexW2027361672
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas38

A quantitative bioenvironmental study of cranioskeletal size has been made of a latitude-ordered sequence of 14 series of adult skeleton sets (N=305): the archaeological remains of aboriginal maritime peoples inhabiting the west coast of North America between southern California and the Arctic. Of eight osteometric parameters of cranioskeletal size developed, the most important are partial skeleton volume (PSK) and cranial capacity (CC); and the principal bone-affecting environmental factors are the northerly climate (CLIM2c), the reconstructed diet deficient in calcium and overabundant in animal foods and vitamin D (DIET3c), and demographic stress (DSg). Prior research has demonstrated that cranioskeletal size increases with geographical latitude and decreases under dietary calcioprivation and unphysiologically high birth rates. Upon linear multifactorial statistical analysis our main finding, limited to the Amerindian subsequence (n=11 series) from the Santa Barbara Channel, the San Francisco Bay Region and the Northwest Coast, is that PSK and CC vary in direct proportion to CLIM2c, and inversely with DIET3c and DSg. Controlling for the latter two osteoantitrophic factors, coastal Amerindian female PSK rises by 9% between 34 and 54°N latitude, CC by 5%; and the male incremental rates are somewhat higher, 13 and 10%, respectively. This newly discovered climate-dependent race cline, an example of Bergmann's Rule, is interpreted as factual evidence of a mid-Wisconsin or earlier arrival date for the first Palaeoindians. Cranioskeletal size of the very small (n=3 series) Western Eskimo subsequence approximates the northernmost values of the coastal Amerindian distribution. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Antler · Archaeology · Arctic · Bay · Climate change · Cline (biology · Geography · Latitude · Physical geography · Population · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Demography · Geology · Oceanography