Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-tpknm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-01T04:47:09.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - The oral health consequences of the adoption and intensification of agriculture in Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2009

By
Marc Oxenham ,
Nguyen Lan Cuong  and
Nguyen Kim Thuy
Edited by
Marc Oxenham  and
Nancy Tayles
Marc Oxenham
Affiliation:
Australian National University Canberra Australia
Nguyen Lan Cuong
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology Hanoi Vietnam
Nguyen Kim Thuy
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology Hanoi Vietnam
Marc Oxenham
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
Nancy Tayles
Affiliation:
University of Otago, New Zealand
Get access

Summary

Introduction

In 1979, Christy Turner put the Asia Pacific region on the global bioarchaeological radar with his highly cited paper characterising subsistence economies using mean caries frequencies. Collating dental caries data from some 64 samples, Turner (1979, p. 622) found a mean caries frequency for hunter–gatherers of 1.3%, for mixed economies of 4.8% and for agriculturalists of 10.4%. Rose et al. (1984) also posited a quantitative benchmark where a mean carious lesion rate per individual exceeding 2 indicated agricultural dependency. In fact, the contributions in the widely cited book by Cohen and Armelagos (1984) helped to formulate a consensus view that the frequency of carious lesions will increase with the move from foraging to agriculturally oriented subsistence bases, at least in the maize-based economies on the North American continent. Other contributions to that volume detailed the same correlation between increasing frequencies of lesions and intensification of millet-based agriculture in North Africa (Martin et al. 1984) and of barley- and wheat-based agriculture in the Levant (Smith et al. 1984). Lukacs (1992) has also documented the same trend in South Asia with the intensification of wheat and barley agriculture. With respect to Europe, Molnar and Molnar (1985) argued not so much an increase in carious lesions per se but rather for a high prevalence of root lesions with the increased use of unspecified domesticated grains. It is also worth pointing out that other types of grain have been associated with this apparent global trend.

Type
Chapter
Information
Bioarchaeology of Southeast Asia , pp. 263 - 289
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bayard, D. T. 1984. A tentative regional phase chronology for Northeast Thailand. In Otago University Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology, Vol. 16: Southeast Asian Archaeology at the XV Pacific Science Congress. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, pp. 87–128.Google Scholar
Boyd, W. E. and McGrath, R. 2001. Iron Age vegetation dynamics and human impacts on the vegetation of Upper Mun River floodplain, NE Thailand. New Zealand Geographer 57: 21–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M. N. and Armelagos, G. J. (eds.). 1984. Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Dias, G. and Tayles, N. 1997. ‘Abscess cavity’: a misnomer. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 7: 548–554.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domett K. M. 1999. Health in late prehistoric Thailand. Ph.D. thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin.
Domett, K. M. 2001. British Archaeological Reports International Series No. 946: Health in Late Prehistoric Thailand. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Douglas M. T. 1996. Paleopathology in human skeletal remains from the pre-metal, bronze and iron ages, Northeastern Thailand. Ph.D. thesis, University of Hawaii.
Erdal, Y. S. and Duyar, I. 1999. A new correction procedure for calibrating dental caries frequency. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 108: 237–240.3.0.CO;2-Z>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Higham, C. F. W. 1989. The Archaeology of Mainland Southeast Asia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Higham, C. F. W. 1996. The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Higham C. F. W.1998. The faunal remains from mortuary contexts. In Higham, C. F. W. and Thosarat, R., eds., University of Otago Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology, Vol. 18: The Excavation of Nong Nor, a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, pp. 315–320.Google Scholar
Higham, C. F. W. and Thosarat, R. 1998. Prehistoric Thailand from Early Settlement to Sukhothai. Bangkok: River Books.Google Scholar
Hillson, S. 2001. Recording dental caries in archaeological human remains. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 11: 249–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley M. A., Levesque D. R. and Weidl E. 1991. Contrasting patterns of dental disease in five early northern Chilean groups. In Kelley, M. A. and Larsen, C. S., eds., Advances in Dental Anthropology. New York: Wiley-Liss, pp. 203–213.Google Scholar
Kilgore, L. 1989. Dental pathologies in ten free-ranging chimpanzees from Gombe National Park, Tanzania. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 80: 219–227.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krasse, B. 1985. The cariogenic potential of foods: a critical review of current methods. International Dental Journal 35: 36–42.Google ScholarPubMed
Larsen, C. S. 1995. Biological changes in human populations with agriculture. Annual Review of Anthropology 24: 185–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen, C. S. 1997. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsen C. S., Shavit R. and Griffin M. C. 1991. Dental caries evidence for dietary change: an archaeological context. In Kelley, M. A. and Larsen, C. S., eds., Advances in Dental Anthropology. New York: Wiley-Liss, pp. 179–202.Google Scholar
Lovell, N. C. 1990. Skeletal and dental pathology of free-ranging mountain gorillas. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 81: 399–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovell, N. C.. 1991. Patterns of Injury and Illness in the Great Apes: A Skeletal Analysis. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.Google Scholar
Lubell, D., Jackes, M., Schwarcz, H., Knyf, M. and Meiklejohn, C. 1994. The Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Portugal: isotopic and dental evidence of diet. Journal of Archaeological Science 21: 201–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lukacs J. R. 1989. Dental paleopathology: methods for reconstructing dietary patterns. In Iscan, M. Y. and Kennedy, K. A. R., eds., Reconstruction of Life from the Skeleton. New York: Wiley-Liss, pp. 261–286.Google Scholar
Lukacs, J. R. 1992. Dental paleopathology and agricultural intensification in South Asia: new evidence from Bronze Age Harappa. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 87: 133–150.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lukacs, J. R. 1995. The ‘caries correction factor’: a new method of calibrating dental caries rates to compensate for ante-mortem loss of teeth. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 5: 151–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin D. L., Armelagos G. J., Goodman A. H. and van Gerven D. P. 1984. The effects of socioeconomic change in prehistoric Africa: Sudanese Nubia as a case study. In Cohen, M. N. and Armelagos, G. J., eds., Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 193–214.Google Scholar
Molnar, S. and Molnar, I. 1985. Observations of dental diseases among prehistoric populations of Hungary. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 67: 51–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moore W. F. 1993. Dental caries in Britain from Roman times to the nineteenth century. In Geissler, C. G. and Oddy, D. F., eds., Food, Diet and Economic Change Past and Present. Leicester, UK: Leicester University Press, pp. 50–61.Google Scholar
Oxenham M. F. 2000. Health and behaviour during the mid-Holocene and metal period of Northern Viet Nam. Ph.D. thesis, Northern Territory University, Darwin, Australia.
Oxenham, M. F., Nguyen, L. C. and Nguyen, K. T. 2002a. Oral health in Northern Viet Nam: neolithic through metal periods. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 22: 121–134.Google Scholar
Oxenham, M. F., Locher, C., Nguyen, L. C. and Nguyen, K. T. 2002b. Identification of Areca catechu (betel nut) residues on the dentitions of Bronze Age inhabitants of Nui Nap, Northern Vietnam. Journal of Archaeological Science 29: 909–915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, R. A. 1995. Agricultural change and ethnic succession in Southeast Asian studies: a case for regional anthropology. Journal of Asian Studies 54: 968–996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Reilly, D. J. W. 2001. From the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in Thailand: applying the heterarchical approach. Asian Perspectives 39: 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pietrusewsky, M. and Douglas, M. T. 2002a. University Museum Monograph 111: Ban Chiang, a Prehistoric Site in Northeast Thailand. I: the Human Skeletal Remains. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Pietrusewsky, M. and Douglas, M. T. 2002b. Intensification of agriculture at Ban Chiang: is there evidence from the skeletons? Asian Perspectives 40: 157–178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodman P. S. 1988. Diversity and consistency in ecology and behavior. In Schwartz, J. H., ed., Orang-utan Biology. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 31–51.Google Scholar
Rose J. C., Burnett B. A., Nassaney M. and Blaeuer M. W. 1984. Paleopathology and the origins of maize agriculture in the lower Mississippi Valley and Caddoan culture areas. In Cohen, M. N. and Armelagos, G. J., eds., Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 393–424.Google Scholar
Rose J. C., Marks M. K. and Tieszen L. L. 1991. Bioarchaeology and subsistence in the central and lower portions of the Mississippi Valley. In Powell, M. L., Bridges, P. S. and Mires, A. M. W., eds., What Mean These Bones: Studies in Southeastern Bioarchaeology. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, pp. 7–21.Google Scholar
Saunders, S., DeVito, C. and Katzenberg, A. 1997. Dental caries in nineteenth century Upper Canada. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 104: 71–88.3.0.CO;2-G>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith P., Bar-Yosef O. and Sillen A. 1984. Archaeological and skeletal evidence for dietary change during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene in the Levant. In Cohen, M. N. and Armelagos, G. J., eds., Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, pp. 101–136.Google Scholar
Sreebny, L. M. 1983. Cereal availability and dental caries. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology 11: 148–155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tayles, N. 1997. Tooth ablation in prehistoric Southeast Asia. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 6: 333–345.3.0.CO;2-B>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tayles, N. 1999. Report of the Research Committee LXI. The Excavation of Khok Phanom Di, a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand, Vol. V: The People. London: Society of Antiquaries.Google Scholar
Tayles N., Domett K. and Hunt V. 1998. The people of Nong Nor. In Higham, C. and Thosarat, R., eds., University of Otago Studies in Prehistoric Anthropology, No. 18: The Excavation of Nong Nor, a Prehistoric Site in Central Thailand. Dunedin: University of Otago Press, pp. 321–368.Google Scholar
Tayles, N.Domett, K. and Nelsen, K. 2000. Agriculture and dental caries? the case of rice in prehistoric Southeast Asia. World Archaeology 32: 68–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Turner, C. G. II. 1979. Dental anthropological implications of agriculture among the Jomon people of central Japan. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 51: 619–636.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ungar, P. S. 1994. Incisor microwear of Sumatran anthropoid primates. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 94: 339–363.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walker, P. L. and Hewlett, B. S. 1990. Dental health, diet and social status among central African foragers and farmers. American Anthropologist 92: 383–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiriyaromp W. 1984. The human skeletal remains from Ban Na Di: patterns of birth, health and death in prehistoric North East Thailand. M.A. thesis, University of Otago, Dunedin.
White J. C. 1995. Incorporating heterarchy into theory on socio-political development: the case from Southeast Asia. In Ehrenreich, R. M., Crumley, C. L. and Levy, J. E., eds., Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, No. 6 Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies. Arlington, VA: American Anthropological Association, pp. 101–123.Google Scholar
Zarr, Z. H. 1974. Biostatistical Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×