Facial Asymmetry: Bio-indicators of stress in post-Wari populations

Summary

The role of climatic conditions on sociopolitical systems has been a highly discussed theme in archaeology. Over the past decade, archaeology has had great advancement in the realms of method and theory which have facilitated interpretations of environmental influences on social development. This paper presents research that investigates the biological responses to either environmental or social stresses to help elucidate how ancient Andean populations coped during periods of climatic instability and social and political unrest. Specifically, this paper will discuss the results of a Fluctuating Asymmetry (FA) analysis collected from a Late Intermediate Period (ca. AD 1000—1400) skeletal population from the Peruvian south-central highlands.

This study analyzed 72 crania using a Microscribe digitizer to record three-dimensional coordinates of standard bi-lateral facial landmarks. Since bilateral structures tend to develop symmetrically under ideal conditions and asymmetrically under stressed conditions, FA is a suitable proxy to measure the developmental instability in human populations. FA was used to compare Chanka populations to illuminate the social conditions after the collapse of the Wari Empire. This research rejects environmental deterministic frameworks and will present alternative explanations to clarify how non-climatic stress can influence skeletal development.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage