Abstract
Bone morphology is heavily influenced by mechanical loading during an individual’s lifetime. This can be used to infer behavioral variability among individuals, sexes, ages, and populations based primarily on the division of labor. This study compares osteometric dimensions and cross-sectional geometries from the adult and subadult upper limbs of three North American Archaic populations known to be hunter-gatherers: Windover, Indian Knoll, and several Pickwick Basin sites. As an out-group comparison, Mississippian populations were also examined to compare the overall characteristics of asymmetry in a prehistoric agricultural group. Assuming that subadults gradually begin performing the same tasks as the adults within each population, their activities are determined primarily by age and sex as both ethnographic and archaeological evidence suggests. By including the clavicle, humerus, ulna, radius, and first two metacarpals, specific combinations of asymmetry integral in discriminating among adult male and female activity patterns were found within and among each sample population. By utilizing the principle components and discriminant variables that best define adult males and females from each sample and applying them to the subadults, reclassification of the subadults is possible. For every sample population, the subadults are reclassified (misidentified) into the adult male or female categories with more frequency than the subadult category. This result suggests that the reclassified subadults share the patterns of asymmetry seen in the adult sex/gender specific categories due to behavioral similarities and a division of labor early in life.
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