Abstract

The most recognizable pathological condition of the human oral cavity is, arguably, dental caries. Beyond a direct impact on oral health, caries presence (or absence) provides important data for bioarchaeologists—to help reconstruct the diet of past populations and individuals. This study explores such data in 44 samples (n=1,963 individuals, 62,816 teeth) dating between 10,000 BP and recent times across the African sub-continent. It is, to date, the most extensive investigation of its kind in this part of the world, entailing descriptions and quantitative comparisons of caries by period, environment, subsistence strategy and sex.
 Mann-Whitney U tests and factoral ANOVA results provide expected and some unexpected findings, including: 1) a diachronic increase in caries prevalence across the sub-continent, likely related to diet change from widespread population movement; 2) savanna peoples exhibit more caries than those from other environmental regions; 3) subsistence strategy plays a major role in caries occurrence; and 4) males and females do not evidence significant differences in caries frequencies, but variation does exist in several regional groups. These findings reveal that global trends described by previous researchers often apply, though not always—so it is prudent to consider regions independently.

Highlights

  • The most recognizable pathological condition of the human oral cavity is, arguably, dental caries

  • We assess how dental caries frequencies differ The present study focuses on four research by time period, sex, environment, and subsistence questions: strategy among a range of populations across sub

  • Each period was behavioral and biological differences between the marked by a major shift in diet as new foods were sexes and among populations all influence dental introduced

Read more

Summary

Dental Anthropology

2019 │ Volume 32 │ Issue 02 which they were derived: coastal, desert, savanna/ egy, environment, time period, between- sex, or grassland, and tropical rainforest. 4) How does subsistence strategy affect the variable Sub-Saharan Africans used a range of vidual). Because Tukey) to identify significance between all combidiet is determined by subsistence strategy there nations of the independent variables. Spearman’s Rho correlation coefficient was used to and place sub-Saharan African peoples in broader determine any relationship between attrispatiotemporal context, samples from the current tion and caries. Higher levels of wear should correstudy are compared to Turner’s (1979) metalate with fewer caries because normal attrition analysis of populations with different subsistence wears away the tooth surface before caries can strategies. Form (Brothwell, 1963; Scott & Turner, 1988; Hillson, 1996; Caselitz, 1998)

Materials and Methods
The location and severity are recorded for each
Environment Subsistence
Results show a definite increase in caries rate
The results obtained by factorial ANOVA suggests
Findings
Conclusions

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.