Keenleyside A
Department of Classics, Royal Holloway College, University of London, Egham, Surrey, United Kingdom.
Am J Phys Anthropol. 1998 Sep;107(1):51-70. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8644(199809)107:1<51::AID-AJPA5>3.0.CO;2-G.
There have been relatively few paleopathological studies of arctic populations to date, compared to other regions of North America. Studies aimed at elucidating patterns of health and disease in arctic peoples prior to contact and assessing inter- and intraregional differences in disease patterns have been particularly few. In the present study, five pre-contact skeletal samples (N = 193), representing 4 Eskimo populations from northern coastal Alaska and 1 Aleut population from the eastern Aleutian Islands, were examined macroscopically for the following indicators of health status: cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, trauma, infection, dental caries, abscesses, antemortem tooth loss, periodontal disease, and dental attrition. In addition, archeological and epidemiological data were used to help reconstruct the health of these populations. The goals of the analysis were 2-fold: 1) to assess the pre-contact health of North Alaskan Eskimos and Aleuts in order to provide a baseline comparison for the post-contact health of these groups, and 2) to determine if any differences in disease patterns exist between the Eskimos and Aleuts that might be related to differences in their physical environment, subsistence patterns, and cultural practices. The analysis revealed that both groups suffered from a variety of health problems prior to contact, including iron deficiency anemia, trauma, infection, and various forms of dental pathology. Statistical comparisons of the 2 groups revealed that Eskimos and Aleuts had different patterns of health and disease prior to contact. Most notably, the Aleuts had a significantly higher frequency of cranial trauma and infracranial infection than the Eskimos, while the latter had a significantly higher frequency of enamel hypoplasia. An examination of the physical and cultural environment of the 2 groups reveals several possible explanations for these differences, including warfare, subsistence pursuits, and housing practices. The documentation of these differences indicates that variability in pre-contact disease patterns can be identified between hunter-gatherer populations living in similar environments and exhibiting similar general lifestyles.
与北美其他地区相比，迄今为止针对北极地区人群的古病理学研究相对较少。旨在阐明北极地区人群在接触前的健康与疾病模式，以及评估地区间和地区内疾病模式差异的研究尤其稀少。在本研究中，对五个接触前的骨骼样本（N = 193）进行了宏观检查，这些样本代表了阿拉斯加北部沿海的4个爱斯基摩人群体和阿留申群岛东部的1个阿留申人群体，检查内容包括以下健康状况指标：眶筛骨、多孔性骨质增生、创伤、感染、龋齿、脓肿、生前牙齿脱落、牙周病和牙齿磨损。此外，还利用考古学和流行病学数据来帮助重建这些人群的健康状况。分析的目标有两个：1）评估阿拉斯加北部爱斯基摩人和阿留申人接触前的健康状况，以便为这些群体接触后的健康状况提供基线比较；2）确定爱斯基摩人和阿留申人在疾病模式上是否存在任何差异，这些差异可能与他们的自然环境、生存模式和文化习俗的差异有关。分析结果显示，两组人群在接触前都患有多种健康问题，包括缺铁性贫血、创伤、感染以及各种形式的牙齿病变。两组的统计比较表明，爱斯基摩人和阿留申人在接触前的健康和疾病模式有所不同。最显著的是，阿留申人颅骨创伤和颅内感染的发生率明显高于爱斯基摩人，而后者牙釉质发育不全的发生率明显更高。对两组人群的自然和文化环境进行考察后发现了这些差异的几种可能解释，包括战争、生存方式和居住习惯。这些差异的记录表明，生活在相似环境且总体生活方式相似的狩猎采集人群之间，接触前的疾病模式存在变异性。
