Biological Relationships between Foragers and Farmers of South-Central North America: Nonmetric Dental Traits. Issue 1 (20th January 2012)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Taylor, Matthew; Creel, Darrell
• Is Part Of: American antiquity. Volume 77: Issue 1(2012)
• Page Start: 99
• Page End: 114
• Publication Date: 2012-01-20
• Subjects: North America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; America -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- North America -- Periodicals; Archaeology -- America -- Periodicals; Anthropology -- America -- Periodicals; North America -- History -- Periodicals; America -- History -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 970
• DOI: 10.7183/0002-7316.77.1.99
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0002-7316

Abstract

Abstract: Studies of relationships between archeology and biology in the south-central North America can enhance interpretations of social interactions between foraging and farming groups. The present report analyzes the adult dentition of hunter-gatherer populations from what is now Texas and compares them with adjacent samples of agriculturalists. These agriculturallist samples represent the Southwestern (Mimbres-Mogollon) and Southeastern (Caddo) cultural spheres. Nonmetric dental traits provide a useful means for evaluating the biological similarities between different populations. Mahalanobis distance analysis of these traits, drawn from 902 individuals, reveal relatively little morphological similarity between hunter-gatherer and farming groups. Except for a sample of Archaic foragers from the gulf coastal plain, hunter-gatherer samples are more similar to each other than to adjacent agriculturalists. Results suggest that Archaic populations were morphologically diverse, while there was relatively little gene flow between hunter-gatherer and farming populations during the Late Prehistoric period. The overall dissimilarity between hunter-gatherer, Mimbres, and Caddo samples suggests that each may have arisen from a relatively distant common ancestry.