Christy G. Turner

The Settlement of the Americas: A Comparison of the Linguistic, Dental, and Genetic Evidence [and Comments and Reply]

The classification of the indigenous languages of the Americas by Greenberg distinguishes three stocks, Amerind, Na-Dene, and Aleut-Eskimo. The first of these covers almost all of the New World. The second consists of Na-Dene as defined by Sapir and, outside of recent. Athapaskan extensions in California and the American Southwest, is found in southern Alaska and northwestern Canada. The third, Aleut-Eskimo, is the easternmost branch of the Eurasiatic language family located in northern Asia and Europe. These three linguistic stocks are found to agree well with the three dental groups proposed by Turner and the genetic divisions of the New World population advanced by Zegura. The three groups are hypothesized as representing the settlement of the New World by successive migrations from Asia. The earliest is in all probability the Amerind; the relative priority of Na-Dene to Aleut-Eskimo is less certain. The evidence regarding the absolute chronology of these proposed migrations is discussed.

Tooth Wear and Culture: A Survey of Tooth Functions Among Some Prehistoric Populations [and Comments and Reply]

Studies of hominid fossils have frequently reported that one of their outstanding characteristics is their heavily worn teeth. Many skeletal remains of modern man also show this condition of dental attrition, which is probably related to certain cultural activities. The varieties of foods consumed by primitive man and the specialized tool functions of the teeth have left significant marks in the form of worn occlusal surfaces over the dental arches. This paper discusses some of the functions of the teeth indicated by these marks and suggests that tooth wear should be studied carefully in order to gain significant information about the activities of past populations.

Australian Tooth-Size Clines and the Death of a Stereotype [and Comments and Reply]

Tooth size in Australia ran from a minimum in the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland to a maximum in the Murray Basin. The available data suggest that the earliest Australians possessed large jaws and teeth and that subsequently genes for smaller tooth size entered Australia from the northeast corner a model which is consistent with the evidence for the spread of a variety of cultural and technological items. While the evidence is tentative at best, it is consistent with the view that more developed food-preparation techniques had ocurred outside of Australia, allowing dental reduction to occur. The spread of these elements into Australia may be symbolized by the influx of the small-tool tradition early in the Holocene, and it may have been made possible by associated resource-utilization techniques that promote survival in areas previously sparsely utilized, such as the central desert and the coastal margins. This would account for the tooth-size gradient visible down the east coast and from Cape York to the western desert. The largest teeth in Australia survived in just those areas most favorable to human habitation where one would expect the genetic contribution of the earliest inhabitants to be most prominently represented. Tasmanian affinities are clearly with southeastern Australia. After initial occupation, Australia was subject to a continuous trickle of cultural-biological influence from the north rather than having been the receptacle for specific waves, migrations, or invasions.

The Supraorbital Torus: "A Most Remarkable Peculiarity" [and Comments and Replies]

The supraorbital torus is found only in some genera of the primate order. Because no muscles of consequence attach directly to it, it has been considered nonfunctional. However, invitro strain-gauge experiments demonstrate that when the anterior teeth are loaded, the supraorbital region acts as a bent beam, pulled downward on each end by masticatory muscle forces and pushed upward centrally by bite force. Clinical and experimental data indicate that in response to repeated dynamic bending stress, adaptive cellular activity reconstructs skeletal material until bending stresses are neutralized. With these facts in mind, the hypothesis that supraorbital development is, in part, a predictable ontogenetic response to in-vivo bending stresses which concentrate over the eyes during anterior tooth loading was tested by means of a biomechanical model. The bent-beam model states that supraorbital bending is a function of the area moment of inertia of the forehead (relative to the direction of the bite force) and of the bending moment. When this model was tested on a series of Australian Aboriginal crania, significant relationships were found between browridge development and measures of forehead area moment and bending moment. It was concluded that the torus functions to resist bending stress concentrated over the eyes during anterior biting and that its development is proportional to the amount of such stress which cannot be resisted by the unadorned frontal bone.

A massacre at Hopi

Thirty Hopi Indians of both sexes and all ages were killed, crudely dismembered, violently mutilated, and probably cannibalized about 370 years ago. This massacre occurred on the left bank of Polacca Wash ten miles south of the Hopi villages. The location of, dismemberment of bodies in, and radiocarbon age of this mass burial suggest the bodies were once the few live villagers, taken captive by other Hopi warriors, referred to in the legendary account of the destruction of Awatobi pueblo that occurred ten to twelve generations ago.

Dentochronological separation estimates for pacific rim populations.

Dental morphology of American Indians, Asians, and Pacific islanders is used with a multivariate statistic to estimate when genetic separation occurred between several populations. These estimates generally match independent estimates of separation. This method, called dentochronology, gives an American Indian fission date from Asians of about 13,000 � 3,000 years ago, which agrees with archeological data and rules out a European origin because of temporal priority. Polynesians split from Southeast Asians 5,000 � 2,200 years ago and are not derived from Melanesians. Ainu-Jomon originated in Sundaland 14,000 � 3,300 years ago. Africans have been separated from Asian-Americans 60,000 � 6,100 years.

Additional Evidence for Cannibalism in the Southwest: The Case of LA 4528

About A.D. 950, 11 persons of a small Anasazi settlement on Burnt Mesa north of the San Juan River, New Mexico, were butchered, mutilated and possibly roasted. The groups mixed remains were left strewn over a pithouse floor. Nearly all the bones were smashed and splintered. Some of them were burned, some show cut marks, and all exhibit greenstick breaks. Cannibalism is the most reasonable explanation for the patterned destruction. Starvation or necessity, rather than ritual or religious configuration, seem to best explain why the cannibalism occurred.

Dental Caries, Prehistoric Diet, and the Pithouse-to-Pueblo Transition in Southwestern Colorado

Researchers in different parts of the southwestern United States continue to debate whether the end of the Basketmaker period coincides with a general shift from supplemental to intensive maize agriculture across the U.S. Southwest. In some areas this transition appears to have occurred earlier, with heavy reliance on agriculture appearing by the Basketmaker II period. In this study, evidence from dental caries in southwestern Colorado populations supports the latter view, suggesting that Basketmaker subsistence in this area included a heavy reliance on agricultural products. Dental caries frequencies in both Basketmaker and post-Basketmaker samples are well within the expected range for full-time agriculturalists. Although there is no significant association between time period and caries rate, frequencies of interproximal caries and numbers of carious teeth per individual may indicate maize-processing differences between samples obtained from the two temporal periods. Differences in the intensity of maize production, rather than consumption, may contribute to the current lack of agreement on the timing of Southwestern agricultural dependence.

Taphonomic Analysis of Anasazi Skeletal Remains from Largo-Gallina Sites in Northwestern New Mexico

In 1979 Mackey and Green used the condition of Anasazi skeletal remains from five Largo-Gallina phase sites in northwestern New Mexico to aid in their argument that large masonry towers were primarily defensive structures. As part of an ongoing and long-term study of Southwestern violence and cannibalism, the skeletons from their five sites have been reexamined. Evidence for violence, in the form of perimortem bone damage, most often involving males, was present, but none of the sites meet the minimal criteria test for proposing cannibalism.

Perimortem Damage to Human Skeletal Remains from Wupatki National Monument, Northern Arizona

ABSTRACTDamage to bone relatively soon after the time of death (perimortem) has been studied in human skeletal remains from two Pueblo sites at Wupatki National Monument: Room 59 at Wupatki Pueblo (NA405) and Tragedy House (NA682). Carnivores alone were responsible for the tooth marks, gnawing, bone breakage, and disarticulation of some 19 children and adults found in Room 59 at Wupatki. These and other taphonomic observations are used to suggest that human sickness caused the abandonment of Wupatki. The perimortem damage at Tragedy House is entirely different. There, stone tool cut marks, impact fractures, anvil and hammerstone abrasions, marrow exposure, burning, and other intentional damage by humans are evident. This taphonomic signature is unlike all known Southwest burials except those where violence and cannibalism have been suggested as the cause of the damage.