Cuban natives cranial deformation. The implications to the skull vascular system.

Summary

The pre-Columbian deformed skulls, display an oblique tabular fronto occipital artificial cranial warp, which is an Arawak – Taino cultural characteristic element. Such cranial deformations were induced immediately after birth, in both women and men. According to the descriptions supplied by Columbus and other chroniclers, deformations were practiced by the Taíno pottery agriculture groups living in Cuba. Although not all Taíno’s skulls were deformed, this feature is typically used as a cultural identification of these populations. Our main goal is to review the principals’ craneovascular implications of cranial deformation in Cuban pre- Columbian culture. Skull morphogenesis comprises open neurocranial sutures till advanced adult stages. Usually, they finally close long after the brain is completely grown and developed. However the prematurely sutures close may lead to a pathological situation known as craniosynostosis, linked to diverse neurocranial malformations depending on the suture involved. This practice disappeared in the early years of colonization. Such changes may be able to influence the morphology of specific vascular endocranial traits.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)

Keywords

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