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15 Change in the Linear Growth of Long Bones with the Adoption of Wet-Rice Agriculture in Japan KENJI OKAZAKI In an effort to demonstrate how changes in living conditions have affected body development, especially with the beginning of agriculture, the growth patterns of ancient Japanese populations were investigated using samples of juvenile skeletons from time frames ranging from the prehistoric Middle– Final Jomon (縄文) (c. 4000 –500/400 BC) to the early Modern periods (AD 1900–1950). Population health and levels of environmental stress experienced by ancient peoples have previously been assessed based on examination of skeletal remains excavated at sites in many different parts of the world. Some of the parameters considered in evaluating human well-being in the past include mean life expectancy, the frequency and severity of bone lesions indicative of systemic infection, and evidence of growth disruption. In the case of Japan, such studies have been relatively few in number, especially with regard to the Yayoi (弥生) period (c. 500/400 BC–AD 250/300), which is the time when agriculture first made a significant contribution to human subsistence in the archipelago. In this chapter, changes in community health and well-being through time in Japan are evaluated by comparing the average limb length of juvenile samples dating to each of four different prehistoric and historical periods. Dental eruption/formation was used for estimating the age at the death of juvenile samples. Growth studies using older skeletal materials have been conducted in the context of a plethora of available information about the growth patterns of modern people. Modern children growing up in varied environments in manydifferentcountrieshavebeenmeasuredtodeterminehowenvironmental factors affect patterns of growth in height. For instance, children brought up in the impoverished living conditions typical of many developing nations (suffering, among other things, from poor nutrition, diarrhea, and infectious Linear Growth of Long Bones with the Adoption of Wet-Rice Agriculture in Japan 369 disease) are usually found to be relatively short as compared with children from more affluent backgrounds (Eveleth and Tanner 1990; Bogin 1999). These differences in height are most pronounced during childhood, while growth trajectories at puberty are more similar. Although growth at all stages of development is controlled by an interaction between genetic inheritance and environmental conditions (Johnston et al. 1976; Martorell et al. 1977; Frisancho et al. 1980; Bogin 1999), these results suggest the possibility that growth patterns are more sensitive to environmental factors before puberty and that genetic influences on growth are expressed more strongly during adolescence. Studies of the growth trajectories of ancient peoples, such as that initiated by Johnston (1962), have demonstrated that growth in limb length is sensitive to environmental stress in the same way as height (Stloukal and Hanakova 1978; Hummert and Gerven 1983; Molleson 1989; Hoppa 1992; Saunders et al. 1993; Miles and Bulman 1994; Steyn and Henneberg 1996). In particular, studies of the subadult remains of native North Americans have shown that growth retardation increased markedly with the spread of maize agriculture and also after initial European contact and subsequent colonial expansion (Cook 1984; Goodman et al. 1984; Jantz and Owsley 1984a,b; Mensforth 1985; Lovejoy et al. 1990). Well-preserved ancient juvenile skeletal remains are rarely recovered in Japan, largely because of the acidic soils typical of the archipelago. Studies of juvenile growth among prehistoric and early historic populations have also lagged somewhat behind in Japan because of a traditional focus in Japanese physical anthropology on “the origin of the Japanese” (i.e., the genealogical relationship between the Jomon and Yayoi peoples). It is conventionally believed that adult skeletons are the most appropriate source of information on this theme, because their morphological features are fully developed. However , in this study, emphasis is placed on how the change in living conditions that accompanied the introduction of wet-rice agriculture at the Jomon/ Yayoi transition affected trajectories of human growth in Japan, with the expectation of developing a more nuanced understanding of the circumstances of human life during that period. Change in the trajectory of growth in femur length between Yayoi and the early Modern period has already been reported in an earlier paper (Okazaki 2004). In the present study, a group of Jomon skeletal individuals are added to the overall sample; measurements have also been taken in each case on the lengths of five other limb bones. The intention is to use growth suppression as a proxy measure for comparing overall health among Jomon, Yayoi, Muromachi (室町), and early Modern populations, as well as to evaluate how...

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