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male demographic vacuum in the province (Hann 1988:146–147). At least two sources indicate that this was a serious and recognized problem (Bushnell 1979:5; Hann 1988:171). With males absent and traditional mating networks approaching inoperability, it is reasonable to assume that females would take advantage of marriage opportunities with both Spanish military and resident, nonlocal indigenous groups. Therefore, the results of this analysis are completely congruent with ethnohistoric predictions. Mestizaje with Spanish soldiers and interbreeding with ethnically distinct Native American populations are both likely sources of increased variability. However, emphasis on amplifying mechanisms belies the contradiction that population sizes are known to have declined between 1650 and 1704. Why then do we not see evidence for a decline in phenotypic variability in the bioarchaeological record? This ¤nal point is worth additional consideration. Hann’s (1988) summary of the population size data for Apalachee suggests a de¤nitive decline in population size after 1650. Accepting the 1633 estimate of 16,000 as a baseline, the most reliable estimates suggest a decline to 10,500 by 1675 and a further decline to around 8,000 individuals by the time the province was abandoned (Hann 1988:162). In addition, direct evidence for epidemics , so lacking for Patale’s converts and contemporaries, has been documented for Apalachee in the years 1657, 1693, and 1703, the last referring to an epidemic at San Luis itself (Hann 1988:175). Because the site sampled in this analysis (San Luis de Talimali) is believed to have been established in the year 1656 (McEwan 1991a, b, 1992, 1993, 2000, 2001), the effects of these epidemics should have been manifest in the San Luis population. Why, then, is there no evidence for population size decline in the burial record, and, further, does this suggest additional reconsideration of the demographic data? Besides the historical estimates of changes in population size, the best data we have that suggest that population sizes were declining come from two sources: mortuary patterning indicating an increase in crowding and commingling , which are suggestive of an increase in the rate of death, and bioarchaeological data examining changes in population stress and quality of life. As discussed, the mortuary structure at San Luis is consistent with a population experiencing high mortality. Although Iknow of no mass graves, secondary and commingled interments were commonplace, and the rate of burial approached 19 per year, on average (Larsen and Tung 2002). Accepting a population size of 1,400 individuals that lived within San Luis’s jurisdiction (McEwan 1991a:38), the rate of burial is approximately 1.4 percent per year, which is roughly similar to the adjusted 0.8 percent per year for Patale. Although these very crude ¤gures are based on even cruder population size estimates and assumptions about the period of interment activity and the complete recovery 122 Chapter 6 of burials (see Larsen and Tung 2002:24), burial density may belie the simple position that crowded and commingled cemeteries such as that documented for San Luis, Santa Catalina de Guale (Larsen 1993), and the presumed secondary or tertiary location of the Patale congregation at the O’Connell mission site (Marrinan et al. 2000) represent an increase in mortality rates. In fact, the size of the population served by the cemetery and the duration of use may be primary to epidemiological considerations. Certainly it seems that cemetery overuse was not cause for relocation of a doctrina. In addition, bioarchaeological data for Apalachee, though less comprehensive than for the Guale, does not indicate similar levels of systemic physiological stress. As discussed above, with the exception of a high caries prevalence, Patale individuals demonstrated less evidence for metabolic disturbance than even elite precontact Apalachee (Jones et al. 1991). Similar data can be marshaled for San Luis. (1) Caries rates, typically associated with a high maize diet and with declining health conditions, were low at San Luis, only 4.5 percent (Larsen and Tung 2002), which is much lower than comparative data from other mission contexts (Larsen et al. 1991). (2) Collagen preservation was poor, prohibiting the extraction of stable isotope data from all but one individual. This individual, a high status individual buried near the altar end of the church, demonstrated isotopic signatures inconsistent with the consumption of maize on a daily basis (Larsen et al. 2001). (3) Data on the frequency of pathological striae of Retzius, which target early infant stress events of short duration such as diarrhea bouts, affect the fewest number of individuals at San...

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