Anemia and childhood mortality: Latitudinal patterning along the coast of pre-Columbian Peru

Abstract

Hrdlicka ([1914] Smithson. Inst. Misc. Collect. 61:1-69) reported that pre-Columbian skeletal material from the coastal lowland Andean region exhibited a high frequency of porotic hyperostosis, a pathological condition of bone that generally is thought to indicate childhood anemia. While subsequent studies tended to reinforce this conclusion, factors implicated in the condition have yet to be fully explored in the region as a whole. This study explores regional and intravalley variation as one step in establishing biocultural variables that increase the apparent risk of childhood anemia. The study sample includes 1,465 individuals: 512 from Peruvian collections housed at the Field Museum of Natural History, and 953 from systematically excavated contexts from Moquegua, Peru. Environmental stressors, such as parasites and disease, rather than specific dietary practices were found to be more likely associated with childhood anemia in these coastal Andean samples. The study supports cribra orbitalia as an earlier expression of porotic hyperostosis and suggests that porotic hyperostosis, as recorded here, cannot be easily dismissed as a result of cranial shape modification. No clear temporal patterns were observed. Finally, the study establishes that comparing data for children and adults can reveal the relative association between childhood anemia and mortality. Childhood mortality associated with anemia was elevated where the presence of tuberculosis or tuberculosis-like conditions was more common and the presence of water-borne pathogens was negligible. In contrast, those buried at lower altitudes, closer to the coast, and consuming mainly marine resources were less likely to die in childhood with anemia than in the other contexts studied.

Porotic hyperostosis and cribra orbitalia in human remains from southern Patagonia

“…This result is again contrary to others reported in past populations (e.g. Walker, 1986;Blom et al, 2005;Facchini et al, 2004;Keenleyside and Panayotova, 2006), though lower prevalence in non-adults was also observed in some cases (e.g. Grauer, 1993).…”

“…Although an exact relationship between lesions in both anatomical areas is not completely understood, it is recognized that cribra orbitalia is an early expression of porotic hyperostosis, while vault lesion could indicate long-term cases of anemia (e.g. Stuart-Macadam, 1985, 1998Walker, 1986;Blom et al, 2005). Moreover, skulls with both areas affected have been associated with more severe cases of anemia (StuartMacadam, 1989).…”

“…Subrepresentation of non-adults could not be excluded as a possible cause of lower prevalence in this age group. As an alternative hypothesis, a low severity of anemia could not increase the mortality of afflicted non-adults (Blom et al, 2005), and as a consequence they could have survived until adulthood. As was noted by Stuart-Macadam (1985), porotic hyperostosis in adults most probably represent healed lesions from marrow hyperplasia occurring during childhood, since children have greater bone plasticity and iron requirements than adults.…”

“…Walker, 1986;Grauer, 1993;Lovell, 1997;Wright and Chew, 1998;Piontek and Kozlowsky, 2002;Keita, 2003;Facchini et al, 2004;Blom et al, 2005;Keenleyside and Panayotova, 2006), the impact and causes of anemia in populations from southern Patagonia have been little documented. During the last decade of the 20th century, several studies reported a high frequency of porotic hyperostosis and a low frequency of cribra orbitalia in populations from Tierra del Fuego (Pérez-Pérez and Lalueza Fox, 1992;Guichón, 1994;Schinder and Guichón, 2003;Suby and Guichón, 2010).…”

Cranial Age Assessment and Cranial Pathology from the Mesolithic-Neolithic Inhabitants of the Danube Gorges, Serbia

“….CSV (Comma delineated) Created using Microsoft Excel In terms of paleopathology, epidemiology and human health studies this dataset can be used for studies of iron deficiency anemia, hygienic conditions, diets deficiency, and infectious disease in this and other past human populations [17], [18], [19], [20].…”