Diet-Related Buccal Dental Microwear Patterns in Central African Pygmy Foragers and Bantu-Speaking Farmer and Pastoralist Populations

Abstract

Pygmy hunter-gatherers from Central Africa have shared a network of socioeconomic interactions with non-Pygmy Bantu speakers since agropastoral lifestyle spread across sub-Saharan Africa. Ethnographic studies have reported that their diets differ in consumption of both animal proteins and starch grains. Hunted meat and gathered plant foods, especially underground storage organs (USOs), are dietary staples for pygmies. However, scarce information exists about forager–farmer interaction and the agricultural products used by pygmies. Since the effects of dietary preferences on teeth in modern and past pygmies remain unknown, we explored dietary history through quantitative analysis of buccal microwear on cheek teeth in well-documented Baka pygmies. We then determined if microwear patterns differ among other Pygmy groups (Aka, Mbuti, and Babongo) and between Bantu-speaking farmer and pastoralist populations from past centuries. The buccal dental microwear patterns of Pygmy hunter-gatherers and non-Pygmy Bantu pastoralists show lower scratch densities, indicative of diets more intensively based on nonabrasive foodstuffs, compared with Bantu farmers, who consume larger amounts of grit from stoneground foods. The Baka pygmies showed microwear patterns similar to those of ancient Aka and Mbuti, suggesting that the mechanical properties of their preferred diets have not significantly changed through time. In contrast, Babongo pygmies showed scratch densities and lengths similar to those of the farmers, consistent with sociocultural contacts and genetic factors. Our findings support that buccal microwear patterns predict dietary habits independent of ecological conditions and reflect the abrasive properties of preferred or fallback foods such as USOs, which may have contributed to the dietary specializations of ancient human populations.

A combined dietary approach using isotope and dental buccal-microwear analysis of human remains from the Neolithic, Roman and Medieval periods from the archaeological site of Tossal de les Basses (Alicante, Spain)

“…Thus, different sized contaminants from stone-ground foods and marine or terrestrial meat resources could explain the variability of microwear patterns found among populations (Lalueza et al, 1996;Romero et al, 2013). In this context, the microwear evidence on ancient populations from Eastern Iberia have found further indicates that horticultural dependency is usually associated with a more refined diet and decrease of microwear features .…”

“…Given the small sizes of some chronological groups, data were normalized by rank-transformation to mitigate effects of non-colinearity of variable distribution and heteroscedasticity (Conover and Iman, 1981;Romero et al, 2013). All the variables studied passed Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality tests for both microwear (Z = 0.42 to 0.49; P N 0.05) and isotopic values (Z = 0.88 to 1.01; P N 0.05).…”

“…Studies in human populations have shown that intragroup buccalmicrowear variation seems to be less significant than inter-individual and inter-group variability (Pérez-Pérez et al, 1994;Lalueza et al, 1996;Romero and De Juan, 2007), since the amount and physical properties of abrasive particles in the diet determine the microwear formation rates (Gügel et al, 2001;Romero et al, , 2013. For example, farming groups that eat more abrasive items (e.g.…”

“…milled cereals) mostly show high microwear density values De Juan, 2007, 2012). Foragers consuming large amounts of meat and non-abrasive plant materials show lower scratch density values on buccal enamel surfaces (Lalueza et al, 1996;Polo-Cerdá et al, 2007;Romero et al, 2013). Nonetheless, microwear models and selected human groups for comparison are still necessary, since little is known about how buccal-microwear reflects cultural and ecological factors among populations that inhabit similar environmental conditions.…”

Buccal Dental Microwear of a Barbarian Population from Prague-Zličín – a Study of the Migration Period in the Czech Republic

“…Focusing mainly on inter-and intra-population variability within the non-occlusal striation pattern of postcanine dentition, these analyses have yielded valuable information on dietary habits (Puech et al 1980;Pérez-Pérez et al 1994;Lalueza et al 1996;Pérez-Pérez 1990;Estebaranz et al 2012, etc.). These findings have been recently supported by research on the buccal microwear patterns of African Pygmy Foragers and BantuSpeaking Farmers and pastoralist populations that proved the different dietary habits to be independent of ecological conditions and reflected the abrasive properties of preferred foods (Romero et al 2013). Proven findings show that there is a tendency for less striations and a higher frequency of vertical striations exhibited on the dental surfaces of carnivore populations rather than of vegetarian ones (Lalueza et al 1996).…”