Andrea Lessa

Paleoepidemiology: is there a case to answer?

Paleopathology is the study of disease, physiological disruptions and impairment in the past. After two centuries of mainly descriptive studies, efforts are being made towards better methodological approaches to the study of diseases in human populations of ancient times whose remains are recovered by archaeology. Paleoepidemiology can be defined as an interdisciplinary area that aims to develop more suitable epidemiological methods, and to apply those in current use, to the study of disease determinants in human populations in the past. In spite of the limits of funerary or other archaeological series of human remains, paleoepidemiology tries to reconstruct past conditions of disease and health in those populations and its relation to lifestyle and environment. Although considering the limits of studying populations of deceased, most of them represented exclusively by bones and teeth, the frequency of lesions and other biological signs of interest to investigations on health, and their relative distribution in the skeletal remains by age and sex, can be calculated, and interpreted according to the ecological and cultural information available in each case. Building better models for bone pathology and bone epidemiology, besides a more complex theoretical frame for paleoepidemiological studies is a big job for the future that will need the incorporation of methods and technology from many areas, including the tools of molecular biology.

Broken noses for the gods: ritual battles in the Atacama Desert during the Tiwanaku period

The sample consists of 226 skulls from the Atacameño cemetery of Coyo Oriente (639-910 AD), associated with the Tiwanaku period. The authors analyzed signs of acute trauma typically associated with violence, and the results were 12% of men and 9.9% of women displaying any type of lesion related to violence. In males, concentration of these non-lethal lesions in the nasal region (10.4%) as opposed to a random distribution over the entire skull (1.6%), suggests that the blows were struck during rituals. The cultural context of this period, with a strong ideological influence from Tiwanaku, supports the ritual hypothesis, since both the ethnographic as well as archeological records point to the existence of non-lethal violent bleeding with ritual beating to the face. Such rituals persist to this day among certain Andean populations. Among women, the most plausible hypothesis for the lesions (3.9% in the skull, 4.9% in the nasal bones, and 0.9% in the face) is domestic conflicts, since they show a random distribution. Previous studies with other Atacameño samples had indicated the same results for women.

The archeology of human aggressiveness: violence from a paleo-epidemiological perspective

Acute traumatic injuries provide direct evidence that is used in studies of violence in the past. When analyzed from a paleo-epidemiological perspective and in conjunction with data from the material culture, these injuries are an important tool in the interpretation of human aggressive behavior. The latter, which seems to underlie human nature itself, has been recorded as far back as the remote time of mans ancestral hominids and in any type of social organization. By studying the pattern and distribution of blow marks and other signs of physical aggression, we contribute to our understanding not only of the emergence, use, motives, and impact of violence down through time but also of its continuance today.

CRANIAL DEFORMATION AS THE CAUSE OF DEATH FOR A CHILD FROM THE CHILLON RIVER VALLEY, PERU

Dos fardos de infantes hallados en una tumba en el valle del Rio Chillon (Lima, Peru) fueron incorporados a la coleccion del Museo Nacional de Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, a comienzos del siglo XX. Actualmente, un equipo multidisciplinario esta encargado de la curaduria y del estudio de los fardos. El analisis realizado por tomografia computadorizada confirmo que ambos esqueletos tienen menos de un ano de edad. Uno de los fardos esta intacto y sera preservado y exhibido. El otro estaba parcialmente deteriorado y se obtuvo permiso para desenfardarlo y hacer el analisis de los huesos. Se realizo analisis de acaros y de polen, ademas de la descripcion de los huesos y de los artefactos. El craneo presento una perforacion necrosada en el occipital, interpretada como la posible causa de muerte. Se observo tambien una reaccion endosteal de hueso nuevo, un area allanada en la escama occipital y un surco en el parietal asociado a una zona de reabsorcion frontoparietal. Una reaccion patognomonica del periostio en el occipital y en los parietales a lo largo de la sutura lambdoide apuntan a una compresion del craneo, lo que podria explicar el trauma, la necrosis isquemica y la subsiguiente infeccion. El contexto cultural sugiere que el fardo perteneceria a un enterratorio de epoca incaica.

GESTACIÓN DE UN NUEVO PANORAMA SOCIAL EN EL OASIS ATACAMEÑO: CONFLICTOS DURANTE LA TRANSICIÓN PARA EL PERÍODO DE LAS AUTONOMÍAS REGIONALES

En una coleccion de esqueletos proveniente del cementerio precolombino Coyo-3, correspondiente a los momentos finales de la fase Coyo, se analizaron los traumas agudos asociados a violencia. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 48 individuos adultos de ambos sexos; las lesiones consideradas fueron: fracturas de craneo, hueso nasal, ulna y aquellas lesiones ocasionadas por la penetracion de puntas de flecha. La frecuencia de lesiones fue mas alta entre los hombres (33,3%), lo que fue asociado al turbulento escenario sociopolitico presente durante la retraccion tiwanakota en la region atacamena. Mientras que en las mujeres, la frecuencia de lesiones observada fue menor (9,9%) y se atribuye, tal como en otras muestras atacamenas, a violencia domestica

Rituais de sacrifício: a sobrevivência de uma antiga dimensão do corpo humano

The power of tradition is capable of preserving customs that go counter to the social and cultural trends in todays urban centers. Though customs such as rites of sacrifice are often condemned by society and have undergone an adaptive syncretism, they still preserve ancient traditional elements that underline their importance as mediators between the natural and supernatural worlds. A good example of this is the Tinku ritual fight, identified in samples of Pre-Columbian skeletons from the Atacama desert in Chile, which continues to this day amongst Andean groups, having survived for at least 1,200 years. The main objective in this fight is that the participants bleed to death as offerings to the divinity, Pachamama, to assure the fertility of the land and the animals. When rites of sacrifice are understood as symbols of social identity, they give us a better understanding of the ethos of past and present societies, from a very particular perspective.