Auditory Exostosis: A Marker of Occupational Stress in Pre-Contact Populations from the San Francisco Bay Region of California

Summary

The formation of auditory exostosis in prehistoric populations living along the shoreline of San Francisco Bay is due to participation in cold water subsistence behavior. Rates of auditory exostosis in populations from previously excavated archaeological sites located along the Bay Shore were compared with those located in the interior East Bay. A sample population of 1,291 individuals dating from the Early Period (3500 – 200 B.C.) to the Late Period (A.D. 1050 – 1769) was employed to address inter-regional and sex-based differences, and diachronic trends in the frequencies of auditory exostosis. Corresponding with environmental conditions that are conducive to its formation are higher rates of auditory exostosis in populations living along the Bay Shore compared to those occupying an inland setting. Diachronic trends in frequencies of auditory exostosis in the Bay Shore sample also correlates with changes in the use of marine resources, and it is suggested that diving was a strategy employed regularly during the Middle Period (200 B.C. – A.D. 1050) to access shellfish. The sex-based analysis shows this activity was primarily performed my males and reveals different inter-regional diachronic trends in the sexual division of labor as it relates to cold water foraging behavior.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ancestral Native American Archaeology of the San Francisco Bay Area   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage