Non-metric Dental Traits Research Articles

Non-metric dental trait variation among local sites and regional groups of the Neolithic Jomon period, Japan

Inter-populational heterogeneity of the Neolithic Jomon hunter-gatherers of Japan was examined via 21 non-metric dental traits. Skeletal samples from nine local sites and five regional groups of the middle to final stages of the Jomon period were analyzed, and inter-site comparisons were made among five representative sites (Ubayama, Nakazuma, Ikawazu, Yoshiko, and Tsukumo). Statistically significant differences were found in 4/21 traits in the inter-site comparisons, and in 5/21 traits in the inter-regional comparisons between the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Tokai, and Sanyo groups. Smith’s distances suggest that the inter-regional differences within the Jomon assemblages are minor when compared with differences from the non-Jomon samples such as the Yayoi immigrants, Kofun, and modern Japanese. Furthermore, examination of the wider geographical variation of the Jomon people (eastern versus western) revealed significant differences in only 2/21 traits. Distance analysis showed that the eastern and western Jomon groups clustered together, and exhibited the greatest affinities with present-day Southeast Asians among comparable East Asian and Pacific population samples. The Jomon people can be collectively regarded as relatively homogeneous, within the broader context of East Asian and Pacific intra-population variation.

Lee, Christine. Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2007. - The Biological Affinities of Neolithic through Modern Period Populations from China and Mongolia: The Cranial and Dental Nonmetric Trait Evidence. UnM: AAT 3270596

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Anthropological Study of Dental Non-metric Traits in the Pumi Minority in China

Anthropological Study of Dental Non-metric Traits in the Pumi Minority in China

Bioarchaeological analysis of cultural transition in the southern Levant using dental nonmetric traits

To many Near Eastern archaeologists, the Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age transition in the southern Levant indicates the emergence of a new ethnicity. The question remains, however, whether changes in the material culture are the result of an invasion of foreigners, or instead arose from shifting cultural and technical practices by indigenous peoples. This study utilized dental morphological traits to assess phenetic relationships between the Late Bronze Age site of Dothan (1500-1100 BC) and the Iron Age II site of Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir, 701 BC). Information on 30 dental crown and root traits was collected for 4,412 teeth, representing 392 individuals from Lachish and a minimum of 121 individuals from Dothan, using the Arizona State University Dental Anthropology System. Seventeen traits from Dothan and Lachish were compared with dentitions from a Byzantine Jerusalem monastery, Iron Age Italy, a Natufian group (early agrarians from the Levant), and a Middle Kingdom Egyptian site using C.A.B. Smith's mean measure of divergence statistic. The findings suggest that there are more similarities between Dothan and Lachish than either of them and other sites. This analysis indicates that the material culture changes were not the result of a foreign invasion. Rather, the Iron Age people of the southern Levant were related to their Bronze Age predecessors.

Dental morphology of the Dawenkou Neolithic population in North China: implications for the origin and distribution of Sinodonty

We compare the incidence of 25 nonmetric dental traits of the people of the Neolithic Dawenkou culture (6300–4500 BP) sites in Shandong Province, North China with those of other East Asian populations. The Dawenkou teeth had an overwhelmingly greater resemblance to the Sinodont pattern typical of Northeast Asia than to the Sundadont pattern typical of Southeast Asia. Multidimensional scaling using Smith's mean measure of divergence (MMD) statistic place the Dawenkou sample near the Amur and the North China–Mongolia populations in the area of the plot indicating typical Sinodonty. The existence of the Sinodont population in Neolithic North China suggests a possible continuity of Sinodonty from the Upper Cave population at Zhoukoudian (about 34,000–10,000 BP) to the modern North Chinese. The presence of Sinodonty in Shandong Province shows that the Japan Sea and East China Sea were strong barriers to gene flow for at least 3000 years, because at this time the Jomonese of Japan were fully Sundadont. In addition, we suggest that the descendants of the Dawenkou population cannot be excluded as one of the source populations that contributed to sinodontification in Japan.

Postmarital Residence Practices in the Windover Population: Sex-Based Dental Variation as an Indicator of Patrilocality

This study examines postmarital residence patterns at the Windover site, an Early Archaic occupation located in east-central Florida. Residence patterns are assessed using a population genetics model based on isolation by distance and migration matrix methods. Variation in nonmetric dental traits is examined among a group of 40 adult males and 43 adult females. The sex with the higher within-group variance is considered the more mobile sex, thereby providing a possible reflection of residential patterns. Results indicate that females are almost twice as variable as males, thus suggesting patrilocality. However, this result is not statistically significant at the .05 probability level. Additional lines of evidence are assessed in conjunction with dental data. Specifically, ethnographic data indicate that subsistence and sexual division of labor are important factors related to social organization, including residence. Although these lines of evidence can be used to support the dental data and patrilocality, they are not conclusive. Future studies of activity patterns, disease, mortuary remains, and material culture may help to clarify the issue of postmarital residence patterns at Windover.

Canary islands-north African population affinities: measures of divergence based on dental morphology

This investigation addresses two related questions about the origins and biological affinities of the Canary Islands' aboriginal inhabitants. First: With which North African populations do the pre-conquest inhabitants of the Canary Islands have their greatest affinities? Second: Does inter-island biological variability among the Canary Islanders, as has been suggested by other researchers (Hooton 1925, Schwidetzky 1963), imply that potentially different founding populations remained distinct during the pre-conquest period? This study employs dental morphology data derived from pre-conquest skeletons to answer these questions. Non-metric dental traits appear to be controlled by polygenic systems with a low to moderate environmental contribution to the resulting phenotype (Berry 1978, Harris & Bailit 1980, Nichol 1990) and can thus be assumed to reflect genetic relationships. The dental morphology of a sample of Canary Islanders (n = 397) is compared to that of Northwest African samples of Algerian Shawia Berbers (n = 26), Kabyle Berbers (n = 32), Bedouin Arabs (n = 49) and Punic Carthaginians (n = 28) as well as to six samples from Northeast Africa (n = 307) included for the purpose of understanding Canary Islanders' affinities within a wider context. The analysis employs 28 dental traits, quantifying differences in their expression among the various samples through a summary statistic, CAB Smith's Mean Measure of Divergence (MMD). The MMD analysis indicates that the Canary Island sample is most similar to the four samples from Northwest Africa: the Shawia Berbers, Kabyle Berbers, Bedouin Arabs and Carthaginians, less similar to the three Egyptian samples and least like the three Nubian samples. An intra-island comparison among samples from La Gomera, Gran Canaria and Tenerife reveals low, insignificant MMD values in all cases, implying that inter-island dental morphology differences are not so great as to require hypotheses of separate founding populations.

Non-metric Dental Traits in Koreans and Its Racial Differences

Non-metric Dental Traits in Koreans and Its Racial Differences

Dental evidence of biological affinity and environmental conditions in prehistoric Trentino (Italy) samples from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age

The use of teeth in anthropological analyses has always provided valuable information on the subsistence patterns of human communities, as well as the biological relationships among them. The present study analyses the permanent dentition of several diachronically continuing samples from the Trentino alpine region of Italy from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. The study of both metric and non-metric dental traits show a strong level of homogeneity from the earlier to the later samples, indicating little external biological influence from surrounding areas. However, the evidence of oral pathology and linear enamel hypoplasia highlights a trend of increase in defects, particularly between the Neolithic and the Copper Age. This has been ascribed to a shift towards more intense agricultural activities and pastoralism, that led to a change in diet and to an increased sedentism. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dental anthropology and paleodemography of the precolumbian populations of hispaniola from the third millennium B.C. to the Spanish conquest

The demography and dental traits of the skeletal samples from the necropoles of Cueva Roja (IIrd millennium b.C.), El Soco (800 a.D) and Juan Dolio (1400 a.D.) have been analyzed. The preceramic sample from Cueva Roja consists of some 50 individuals, the one from El Soco consists of 158 individuals and the one from Juan Dolio of 108 individuals. The demographic analysis has revealed a slight improvement of life conditions from the pre-contact period to the beginning of the contact period. Dental metrical traits show a marked overlapping of the metrical data for the anterior teeth. A reduction can be noted for the posterior teeth, especially for the first molar, from the preceramic period to the later ceramic period. The analysis of nutritional stresses, through the study of dental enamel hypoplasias, reveals a high incidence of stress in the preceramic population. In the preceramic group, it peaks late in childhood (3.5—3.9 years of age) which could be caused by a delay in weaning. Instead the more recent groups (El Soco and Juan Dolio) show evidence of an earlier occurrence of hypoplasia. Both peak at 3.0–3.4 years of age. The frequencies of hypoplasias calculated by type of tooth are less in the Tainos groups than in the preceramic one. From of the data now available, we can suppose that an amelioration of life conditions occurred from the preceramic period to the later ceramic period. As regards the Tainos groups, a slight improvement in life conditions can be noted from the precontact period to the period immediately before the European colonization. The dental non-metric traits show a strong homogeneity within the Taino groups. However, the preceramic group shows more marked differences when compared to the others. This could be supposed to be due to a different demic background between the Tainos and the group from Cueva Roja.

Dental anthropological evidence of affinities among the Oceania and the Pan-Pacific populations: The basic populations in East Asia, II.

Non-metric dental traits of modern human populations reflect not simply phenotypic plasticity but also reflect genetic change. In the present study, sevendiscrete crown characters were observed.The biological relationships of eleven populations from the Pacific, East Asia and North America are assessed through the application of some distance analyses.The results obtained reveal that the dental characteristics of modern mainland Japanese, the Aeneolithic Yayoi population and Pima-Indians share the classic northern components. Some geographically isolated populations in Japan show, on the other hand, closer affinities to the Neolithic Jomon population, Negritos and the Pacific populations than to modern mainland Japanese.This is evidence that modern Japanese show considerable magnitude of admixture with one of the groups of the Aeneolithic Yayoi population who migratedfrom the northern part of Asia during the Yayoi period and the succeeding age.On the other hand, the Proto-Mongoloid population of late Pleistocene Southeast Asia gave rise to the Neolithic Jomon population, and then to native Japanese.As far as the dental characteristics are concerned, Negritos may be one of the possible representatives of groups through which the basic population in Japan have passed. Based on these findings, a dental anthropological model of population diversification in East Asia and the Pacific was discussed.