Skeletal Health and the Impact of Agriculture within the Mixtec Population from Etlatongo, Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca during the Middle Formative

Summary

Sedentism and agriculture had major impacts on early human societies by increasing social complexity. Some scholars attributed an intensification of inequalities to a greater dependency on agriculture. This dependency, consequently lead to decreased health status of the non-elite/rulers population. Our goal is to address the overarching question of, how did agriculture impact ancient societies? And specifically, does the emergence of agriculture correlate with decreased health? Therefore, we assess the impact of agriculture within the Middle Formative (850 – 400 BC) population from the Mixtec prehispanic society from Etlatongo, located in the Nochixtlán Valley, Oaxaca. We use archaeological and bioarchaeological data to evaluate health of 21 individuals and compare them with other skeleton collections within the same time period, from the Mixteca Alta, Valley of Oaxaca and the Coastal regions, all from Oaxaca. Through these comparisons, we propose that it is possible to extrapolate that agriculture does impact human health in the Middle Formative Mixteca Alta population.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21557