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5 Dental Health at Early Historic Fusihatchee Town: Biocultural Implications of Contact in Alabama Marianne Reeves The research presented here traces changes in patterns of diet and health stress from the Mississippian period into the historic period in Alabama using a model that compares published data on dental health at the prehistoric Moundville site (ca. a.d. 1050 to 1550) to new research on dental health at early contact period Fusihatchee Town (ca. a.d. 1640 to 1814). Comparisons with Moundville, a major Mississippian civic and ceremonial center in west-central Alabama, can highlight alterations that occurred in health and diet in Alabama along with the change (from ca. a.d. 1400–1600) to social and political egalitarianism (Waselkov et al. 1987), dispersed settlement (Peebles 1987a), and European contact. Direct ancestry between the historic inhabitants of Fusihatchee and Mississippian peoples at Moundville is not suggested. The two were ethnically distinct and spatially separated by a distance of approximately 150 miles. It has been suggested that the people(s) of Moundville were ancestors of the Choctaw (Little and Curren 1995), whereas the occupants of Fusihatchee Town are well documented historically as Creek Indians. The cultural differences between these groups preclude any suggestion of cultural continuity between Moundville and Fusihatchee peoples. The validity of the comparison, however, lies in its investigation of the general changes in diet and health patterns in light of the shift from large to smaller-scale occupation sites and in conjunction with the consequences of European contact in Ala- bama. Tracking such shifts can provide a more thorough understanding of the dynamic, complex forces involved in political, social, and economic changes after a.d. 1500 among native peoples, who faced unbridled European expansion into their lands and livelihoods (Waselkov et al. 1987). The contact period was an extraordinary time of turbulent cultural and biological change in the Eastern Woodlands. Amerindians were enslaved and missionized, removed from their homelands, and relocated by European newcomers (M. Smith 1987). Dependence on maize agriculture in native communities in the Southeast generally increased through the historic period (Larsen 1995). Much of the research on the changes that occurred in health patterns from the prehistoric to historic periods has documented a general decline in dental health, with rates of dental caries and enamel hypoplasia increasing, particularly in the later contact period. With a general framework for the changes in health that occurred with the disintegration of major civic and ceremonial centers, the intensi¤cation of agriculture, and European contact in the Southeast as the backdrop, this investigation focuses on the prevalence of dental pathology at two archaeological sites in Alabama, the major Mississippian mound center of Moundville and the early historic town site of Fusihatchee. Historical Framework for the Contact Period It is widely recognized that a general decline in native health accompanied European contact in the Southeast. Epidemics of smallpox and measles decimated native populations, and venereal and congenital syphilis became widespread. Nonspeci¤c responses to health stressors such as periostitis and enamel hypoplasia are often prevalent in skeletal populations from the contact period as well and are taken to indicate a decrease in health levels from the precontact era (Larsen and Milner 1994). Additionally, the physical hardships of enforced labor and relocation contributed heavily to native mortality rates (M. Smith 1987). A complicating factor of health stress generally in the historic period was the increasing reliance on maize and other soft foods in the diet. It has been suggested that this gradual dietary change resulted in a decreasingly varied diet and, in some cases, lessened the potential for obtaining all of the dietary vitamins, minerals, and amino acids needed for adequate nutrition. Exactly what constitutes adequate nutrition remains to be de¤ned, and many nutritionists ¤nd that what constitutes malnutrition is substantially easier to describe (Schoeninger and Moore 1992). For our purposes, the most signi¤cant point to keep in mind is that diet and infectious disease work in a synergistic fashion Dental Health at Fusihatchee 79 (Buikstra and Mielke 1985; Schoeninger and Moore 1992; Scrimshaw 1975; Scrimshaw et al. 1968). If the diet is poor, an individual’s immune system is less likely to be able to fend off infection; and under infectious disease stress, an individual is less likely to be able to take in (and in some cases, absorb) an adequate level of nutrients. Thus, the contact period for the people of Alabama, as in other parts of the Eastern Woodlands, was a time when all of these stress...

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