Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom: Chronology, Content, Contest

5. Of Time and the River: Perspectives on Health during the Moundville Chiefdom

5. OfTime and the River: Perspectives on Health during the Moundville Chiefdom MARY LUCAS POWELL A PREVIOUS SYNCHRONIC STUDY of elite and nonelite burials from Moundville indicated that minor variations in adult stature, childhood stress, dental health, trauma, and infectious disease owed more to age and sex than to differences in ranked status. A diachronic reevaluation of these dimensions of health suggests several trends from Moundville I through Moundville III: small increases in stature and diet-related dental disease for adults of both sexes, a decline in severe chronic iron-deficiency anemia among children, and the first clear appearance of endemic treponematosis and tuberculosis in Moundville II. The overall picture conforms logically to the site's changing role from a major population center to the paramount regional mortuary site, as the growing population gradually spread throughout the Black Warrior Valley in secondary- and tertiary-level communities rather than remaining concentrated at Moundville itself. This dispersed distribution would have minimized (a) localized depletion of animal protein resources through overhunting, (b) contamination of living areas by parasite-infected human wastes, and (c) pathogen exchanges promoted by crowded living conditions. The increasing reliance on maize (documented by bone chemistry and archaeobotanical evidence reported elsewhere in this volume) produced more dental caries and antemortem tooth loss. The dating of numerous burials by phase provides a secure pre-Columbian context for the paleopathological diagnosis of New l02 OfTime and the River 103 World endemic treponematosis and tuberculosis in the Black Warrior Valley. Over the past quarter century, archaeologists have focused intensive study on many aspects of the Mississippian ranked polity centered at Moundville: its internal social organization, external trade and political relations, diet, and domestic economy. The bioarchaeological study presented here examines another critical feature-the relationship between social status and people's health in that successful chiefdom. The first section summarizes an earlier synchronic analysis of status and health in 564 Moundville burials divided into elite and nonelite mortuary segments (Powell 1988, 1992b). The second section reports a new diachronic study ofhealth based on examination of all Moundville burials currently seriated and represented by skeletal remains (N = 144). This reanalysis incorporates changing views of Moundville's history as a regional mortuary center (chap. 1). Analyses of this sort have two essential prerequisites if they are to be grounded in biocultural reality. First, the population sample must be divided into contemporaneous status-distinct subgroups, based on mortuary criteria. Second, modeled expectations of status-associated differences in health must explicitly link related aspects ofbiology and behavior , such as superior nutrition of elite families and smoother growth trajectories for elite subadults. The inclusion of a diachronic dimension extends this dynamic linkage through time: the coevolution of society and health in microcosm. STATUS AND HEALTH AT MOUNDVILLE: A SYNCHRONIC VIEW Excavations at Moundville in 1905 and 1906 by C. B. Moore uncovered approximately 800 human burials within and around the mounds (Moore 1905, 1907). The Alabama Museum of Natural History (AMNH) uncovered some 2,4°0 additional interments from 1929 to 1941, all from nonmound locales, for a total of 3,200 reported burials at the site (Peebles 1979). Peebles's analysis of mortuary data from the Moore and AMNH excavations divided a sample of the 2,000 bestdocumented burials into a series of clusters on the basis of associated grave goods and burial location (Peebles 1971, 1974, 1983; Peebles and Kus 1977). He interpreted these groupings as representing different 104 POWELL sociopolitical aggregates: (a) an elite sector, distinguished by access to certain artifacts, design motifs, exotic materials, and special burial locales primarily in mounds (Segment A), and (b) a nonelite sector interred near mounds or village areas (segments B and C), with the majority of individuals (Cluster XI) lacking any reported associated artifacts. The association of elite items with both sexes and all ages (including infants) suggested to Peebles that social rank was to some degree ascribed at birth, although achievements in adult life probably played an additional role. Ethnographic evidence from historic southeastern chiefdoms indicates that in some circumstances, elite individuals enjoyed varying degrees of preferential access to selected foods as well as to material items and ceremonial privileges (Bourne 1904; Du Pratz 1972; Swanton 1911, 1946; Garcilaso de la Vega 1951). If foods of high nutritional value (e.g., meat) were in short supply either seasonally or episodically, the biological consequences of elite preferential access could be profound. Normal growth and development depend...