ANTH 0538 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Skin Infection, Diphtheria, Smallpox
Document Summary
Most skeletons had died as young adults: mortality rates for young adults were about 3x higher than in human populations and even in chimpanzee populations, they lived rugged, dangerous lifestyles. High rates of bone fractures, likely from fighting large animals. Fracture patterns most closely parallel human rodeo riders. No known case of a neanderthal who survived a severe leg injury, which would have prevented movement. Suggests they were not taken care of by the greater group. Neanderthal social life: based on skeletons from el sidron cave in spain, 6 adults, 6 children all had been dismembered, likely cannibalized, dna shows the three males were related, though the women were not. Suggests a patrilocal society; females left their families to live with their male partners. Agriculture and paleodemography: farming began about 10,000 years ago, increase in sedentism and population growth. Their sedentism caused human waste contamination: 1) filth diseases amoebas and viral infections cholera, typhoid, giardia, dysentery, etc.
