Dental disease in prehistoric Central California: sex differences in early period Windmiller populations

Abstract

Bioarchaeological studies of dental caries have found that females often exhibit a higher prevalence of dental caries than their male counterparts. While this trend is most often noted in prehistoric agricultural populations, recent research has also indicated a higher prevalence of dental caries among prehistoric female hunter-gatherers from California’s Central Valley Windmiller culture (4500–2500 BP) compared to their male counterparts. This study expands on this earlier research to include additional Windmiller culture sites to test the hypothesis that females display greater caries prevalence than males. The prevalence of dental caries was assessed utilizing the dentitions of male and female individuals at four archeological sites in the California Central Valley: CA-SAC-107, CA-SJO-142, CA-SJO-56, and CA-SJO-68. A ‘caries correction’ factor was applied to account for antemortem tooth loss (ATML) from attrition versus AMTL due to caries. The results indicate that while females in all of the Central Valley populations analyzed display a greater proportion of dental caries than males, the difference is only statistically significant at CA-SJO-56 and CA-SJO-68. The prevalence rates at CA-SAC-107 approach significance, but are likely not significant due to sample size, while the lack of significance at CA-SJO-142 may be due to extremely high rates of dental attrition. While physiological differences likely contributed to the disparity in dental caries prevalence, these results suggest that differential access to resources, resulting from the sexual division of labor, also contributed to the higher rate of dental caries among females at these Windmiller sites.