Bones of the Maya: Studies of Ancient Skeletons

11 Dental Genetic Structuring of a Colonial Maya Cemetery, Tipu, Belize

11 Dental Genetic Structuring ofa Colonial Maya Cemetery~ Tipu~ Belize Keith P. Jacobi Teeth are not everlasting but they come close. Natural elements only slowly break down enamel, the hardest substance in the human body. For this reason, teeth provide an excellent source of information about burials recovered from an archaeological context. At Tipu, Belize, the remains of more than 600 individuals were found beneath and surrounding a colonial visita mission (Fig. 11.1; Cohen et al. 1989, 1994). The primary and extensive use of the burial area at the Tipu mission was between A.D. 1568 and 1638, the latter year marking the Maya rebellion against the Spanish (Graham et al. 1989; Jones 1989). The burials at the mission are believed to be Maya and are the largest number excavated to date from contact times in a single cemetery. The dental remains from these individuals were examined and the results were used to attempt to reconstruct the burial pattern or mortuary strategy employed at the church. The teeth were used to compare this population to other prehistoric, historic, and modern Maya and to explore the extent of Spanish influence on the Tipu Maya. The analy138 sis utilized both the morphological and metric variation of the teeth from this archaeologically derived Maya population from historic times. Nonmetric and metric skeletal traits observed on the skull, axial skeleton, and appendicular skeleton are often used in the study of human morphological variation (Buikstra 1976; Conner 1984, 1990; Droessler 1981; Hauser and De Stefano 1989). The traits are used to show relationships between or among population groups. Teeth are analyzed for morphometric information as well. Both metric and nonmetric traits are heritable, and the results of analyses of both kinds of traits are highly correlated (Cheverud et al. 1979; Cheverud and Buikstra 1982). Metric and nonmetric traits express variation. Metric traits are on a continuous scale of measurable variation (e.g., tooth length and width are measurable traits). Nonmetric traits are landmarks such as cusps, ridges, and grooves that are present on the crown and root of a tooth. These traits can be either discontinuous or partially continuous and are difficult to measure (Hillson 1986). Figure 11.1. Tipu church with burials. Previous investigations have recorded dental nonmetric and metric characteristics of populations over large geographic areas (Dahlberg 1951; Kieser 1990; Moorrees 1957; Turner 1985). Populations have been subdivided into single geographic areas or regional populations in studies such as Lukacs and Hemphill's (1991) temporal investigation of Baluchistan or Harris and Bailit's (1987) work on individuals in the Solomon Islands and Oceania. Some morphometric analysis has involved further subdivisions of populations such as the investigations of Barksdale (1972) and Boyd (1972) of the different village populations included in the Kainantu Language Family in the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea (Littlewood 1972). The dental genetic structure of a population has been subdivided even further to involve the extended family or immediate family (Harris and Weeks 1973). The dental remains from Tipu Tlpu· MISSION, Belize i , i r ... , were analyzed to determine the geographical/ regional, temporal, and family influences on the Tipuan genetic makeup. The nonmetric and metric data recorded from the dental remains at Tipu were used to create a complex of Maya dental traits indicative of that population. Through the analysis it was determined whether or not it was possible to discern influxes of Maya refugees to Tipu as ethnohistorical documents suggest happened (Jones 1989). It was also determined whether or not Spanish individuals were interred at the site and the degree of Spanish admixture at Tipu. In addition, it was hoped that nonmetric traits might identify family groups or relations within the cemetery and offer information on traditional Spanish Catholic burial practices. At Tipu two cultures met: the Maya with a long-standing complex of their own religious beliefs and the Spanish with an agenda of reliDENTAL GENETIC STRUCTURING OF A COLONIAL CEMETERY 139 gious conversion. The first Spanish emissaries were friars of the Catholic Church who were charged with the mission of converting the Maya to Catholicism. Do the Tipu church and the individuals buried there give evidence that the friars met some of their goals of conversion, including adoption of Spanish Catholic burial practices? Do the burials resemble the pattern of Spanish influence found at another settlement , Tancah, Quintana Roo? Miller and Farriss (1979) describe the Tancah site as having burials within the church and its...