Economic intensification and degenerative joint disease: Life and labor on the postcontact north coast of Peru

Abstract

This study tests the hypothesis that the colonial economy of the Lambayeque region of northern coastal Peru was associated with a mechanically strenuous lifestyle among the indigenous Mochica population. To test the hypothesis, we documented the changes in the prevalence of degenerative joint disease (or DJD) in human remains from the late pre-Hispanic and colonial Lambayeque Valley Complex. Comparisons were made using multivariate odds ratios calculated across four age classes and 11 principle joint systems corresponding to 113 late pre-Hispanic and 139 postcontact adult Mochica individuals. Statistically significant patterns of elevated postcontact DJD prevalence are observed in the joint systems of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and knee. More finely grained comparison between temporal phases indicates that increases in prevalence were focused immediately following contact in the Early/Middle Colonial period. Analysis of DJD by sex indicates postcontact males experienced greater DJD prevalence than females. Also, trends between pre- and postcontact females indicate nearly universally elevated DJD prevalence among native colonial women. Inferred altered behavioral uses of the upper body and knee are contextualized within ecological, ethnohistoric, and ethnoarchaeological frameworks and appear highly consistent with descriptions of the local postcontact economy. These patterns of DJD appear to stem from a synergism of broad, hemispheric level sociopolitical alterations, specific changes to Mochica activity and behavior, regional economic intensification, and local microenvironmental characteristics, which were all focused into these biological outcomes by the operation of a colonial Spanish political economy on the north coast of Peru from A.D. 1536 to 1751.

Skeletal evidence of craft production from the Ch'iji Jawira site in Tiwanaku, Bolivia

“…While the exact etiology of OA is unknown, it has been associated with non-bilateral recurring motion injuries on joint surfaces (Bridges, 1992;Bridges, 1995;Cope et al, 2005;Felson, 2004;Felson et al, 1991;Felson and Zhang, 1998;Gramstad and Galatz, 2006;Huiskes, 1982;Jurmain, 1999;Larsen, 2000;Schrader, 2012;Weiss and Jurmain, 2007). OA has been used in prior bioarchaeological research to discuss task-based repetitive motion injuries within joints, estimating motions used over and over again, such as grinding grain or weaving textiles (Bridges, 1989;Bridges, 1991a;Bridges, 1992;Cope et al, 2005;Jurmain, 1999;Kennedy, 1989;Klaus et al, 2009;Larsen, 2000: 107, Pearson andRoberts and Manchester, 1995: 150 and others). Data were recorded bilaterally for each surface in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, sacroiliac, hip, knee, ankle, spine, hand, foot, and temporomandibular joint, totaling over 100 different joint-areas throughout the skeleton.…”

Septal Aperture and Osteoarthritis—The Same or Independent Origins?

“…OA was scored if any one or a combination of osteophytic lipping, porosity, or eburnation were observed in articular surface of distal humerus, proximal ulna. Data were recorded as present, or absent (Klaus et al, 2009). The analysis were made on both left and right limb bones.…”

Paleoepidemiology of pre-Columbian and Colonial Panamá Viejo: a preliminary study

“…Some studies on general paleopathology provide some data, but comparisons are difficult because the diagnostic criteria used are unclear [49,73]. However, it is worth comparing data even if only in a general way (see Table 5 for reported data [74, [76][77][78][79][80][81]). [24] The difference in frequencies between the two studies from Ancón [74,78], in the Peruvian Central Coast, has been attributed to the high proportion of young individuals in Kauffmann's study sample [78].…”