Dental Morphology of the Prehistoric Chamorro, Guam

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Dental morphology has a long history of use in understanding the biological distance and migrations of past populations. Though distribution of the frequencies of morphological traits of teeth have been documented around the world, variation within Micronesia is the least studied among the peoples of the Pacific, leaving peopling of the region the least understood. This project records dental morphological traits from a collection of dental casts of pre-Spanish Chamorro remains from Guam in order to document the peopling of Micronesia through their affinity to other known groups. A collection of 57 casts were scored for 21 non-metric traits of dental crowns using rASUDAS protocols and software. Frequencies of traits were compared to other C.G. Turner II datasets and diversity of traits within this sample were compiled. Higher frequencies of Carabelli’s cusp, protostylids, deflecting wrinkles, and cusp 7 were observed than expected. However, Chamorro affinity is consistent with Sundadonty of East Malay Archipelago and Ainu, but their relationship to Philippine or Taiwan samples remains debatable. As knowledge of the dental morphology of living and prehistoric Micronesians increases, the population history of the Pacific and its role in understanding world-wide patterns of migration will be clarified.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• SAA 2021: General Sessions

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33306