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20 - Estimating a Mortality Profile of Fisher-Gatherers in Brazil Using Cementochronology

from Part III - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2022

By
Stephan Naji ,
Joël Blondiaux ,
Sheila Mendonça de Souza ,
Iris Zeng  and
Jean-Pierre Bocquet-Appel†
Edited by
Stephan Naji ,
William Rendu  and
Lionel Gourichon
Stephan Naji
Affiliation:
New York University
William Rendu
Affiliation:
University of Bordeaux (CNRS)
Lionel Gourichon
Affiliation:
Université de Nice, Sophia Antipolis
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Summary

The evolution of nomadic collectors' fertility and mortality before the agriculture invention in independent centers 10,000 years ago is still debated. Skeletal samples are the only way to observe prehistoric demographic patterns directly. Each assemblage is critical for direct investigation since pre-farming groups exhibit high residential mobility. Cabeçuda is a funerary mound (sambaqui) in Santa Catarina State, Brazil. Its occupation (4,180BP-1,800BP) corresponds to its expansion peak and decline with horticulturalists' arrival. A cementochronology analysis of 93 skeletons suggests a high frequency of young adults and a lack of adults past 60, which departs from contemporary collector models but is common in catastrophic samples or migratory events. The metabolic load model predicts that a group of semi-nomadic fisher-gatherers should display transitional fertility between sedentary farmers and nomadic collectors. This is the case for Cabeçuda with a 15P5 ratio below and a TFR within all contemporary pre-farming groups. However, within a quasi-stable hypothesis, several variables can produce the same output, and we lack the data to evaluate the death structure.

Keywords

cementochronologyshell-middenhunther-gathererage-at-death
Type
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Dental Cementum in Anthropology , pp. 322 - 337
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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