Invisible impacts but long‐term consequences: Hypoplasia and contact in central Australia

Abstract

The dental casts taken of Aboriginal people resident at Yuendumu, Central Australia, between 1950-1970 preserve a unique historical record of defects of the dental enamel (DDEs) among people born from 1890-1960 (n = 377). These data are used, in comparison with precontact data, to trace the chronological changes in childhood development that occurred among Aboriginal people from the point of initial engagement with white settlers to a period of overwhelming government control. The results demonstrate very little change in the frequency of DDE from the precontact period to 1929 but increases after that time, particularly after the forcible settlement of people on a government establishment at Yuendumu in 1946. Apart from the absolute increase in frequency, it is also clear that population variation decreased markedly, with growing numbers of children experiencing multiple defects in early childhood (ca. 0.8-1.5 years of age). The results also indicate that an early onset of DDE constituted a risk for further episodes. These changes in DDE correspond to periods of increasingly intense contact between Aboriginal people and Europeans and with changes to government policy aimed at assimilating the indigenous population. Such policies had marked costs for childhood development. The lack, however, of a visible marker of initial contact demonstrates the importance of the intensity of and motives behind interactions between indigenous and colonial populations in determining the health consequences of colonial encounters.

Bioarchaeological evidence for adaptive plasticity and constraint: Exploring life‐history trade‐offs in the human past

“…For example, risk of chronic infection may be compared between individuals with and without skeletal and dental evidence for early life adversity using specific and nonspecific skeletal indicators of infection. Alternately, susceptibility to growth disruption may be explored by estimating the number or periodicity of LEH following early life stress . Age‐at‐death may also be used to evaluate the ultimate trade‐off with surviving early life stress, exacerbated mortality schedules.…”

“…Alternately, susceptibility to growth disruption may be explored by estimating the number or periodicity of LEH following early life stress. 81,82 Age-at-death may also be used to evaluate the ultimate trade-off with surviving early life stress, exacerbated mortality schedules. Finally, the context laden approach of bioarchaeological research has the capacity to demonstrate how social and ecological contexts may accentuate or mitigate physiological constraints following the survival of early life stress events.…”

The Relationship Between Linear Enamel Hypoplasia and Social Status in 18th to 19th Century Edo, Japan

“…For example, some studies investigated the chronological changes in patterns of LEH occurrence in a certain population, often associated with changes in subsistence (e.g. Rose et al, 1978;Rudney, 1983;Cucina, 2002;Griffin & Donlon, 2007;Starling & Stock, 2007) or contacts with another population (Santos & Coimbra, 1999;Littleton, 2005).…”

Mother City and Colony: Bioarchaeological Evidence of Stress and Impacts of Corinthian Colonisation at Apollonia, Albania

“…The record of physiological stress derived from skeletal tissues shows a slight increase at post‐colonial Apollonia, but this decline was not as pronounced as has been observed in many other colonised populations (various authors in Verano & Ubelaker, ; Larsen, ; Larsen & Milner, ; Larsen et al ., ; Littleton, ; Buzon & Richman, ; Klaus & Tam, ; Spielmann et al ., ). Additionally, it is unclear whether increasing trade and access to new resources was beneficial for Apollonians for other reasons aside from skeletal health.…”