Modelling the Persistence of Helminth Infections in Small-Scale Societies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Parasitic infections present in human populations are often correlated with increased sedentism, interaction with domesticated animals, and urbanism. However, parasitic population trends are rarely used to infer ancient human behavior. In this study we examine the relationship between soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection rates and small sedentary communities. We propose a deterministic dynamical model based on modern studies of human-parasite, Ascaris lumbricoides, populations to estimate the minimum human population (breakpoint) necessary to sustain a STH infection. Dynamical models describe the motion of a point (e.g., STH or human populations) through time and deterministic models exhibit no randomness. We hypothesize that human movement between communities of varying size can maintain an endemic STH population within small communities below the breakpoint. Preliminary results indicate that a breakpoint does exist for human-parasite relationships. Also, the model indicates that STH populations can take decades to become extinct when human populations are just below the breakpoint, supporting our hypothesis that small perturbations due to human movement can sustain an STH population. In future studies, we will test our model with current and archaeological small communities evincing helminth infections and develop an agent-based model. These models can be used to understand human mobility and social network exchange.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2024: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39715.0