Date of Award

Spring 4-17-2025

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department/Major

Anthropology

First Advisor

Dr. Saige Kelmelis

Second Advisor

Dr. Tony Krus

Third Advisor

Dr. Julie Hoggarth

Keywords

Maya, Paleodemography, Sex, Status, Survivorship, Mortality

Subject Categories

Anthropology | Biological and Physical Anthropology | Demography, Population, and Ecology | Other International and Area Studies

Abstract

While it has been suggested that the compounded effects of population growth and climatic pressures over the Classic period (c. 300-1000 CE) led to a health crisis among the Maya, there is no current knowledge of whether there were significant sex differences in risks of mortality and frailty associated with metabolic stressors. This research assesses sex differences in frailty and mortality of adults (n=52) from the medium-sized Maya polity of Lower Dover in the upper Belize River Valley from the Late Preclassic (c. 300 BCE-150 CE) to Terminal Classic (c. 750-1000 CE). Osteological methods of estimating age and sex were conducted using transition analysis and morphoPASSE. Metabolic indicators of frailty (LEH, cribra orbitalia, porotic hyperostosis, PNBF, and dental pathologies) were scored using Standards criteria. Kaplan-Meier and Cox hazard analyses were used to examine survivorship and mortality differences associated with frailty indicators across sexes and political statuses. Results showed that commoner females had a 17.01% elevated mortality hazard compared to males, and elite individuals had a 22.50% lower mortality risk. Survival analyses showed that there were no statistically significant differences between sexes in their risks of death with or without lesions; however, Cox hazards results indicated that individuals with lesions experienced overall lower risks of death compared to their nonlesioned age-peers. These results suggest that sex was not a strong predictor of frailty and mortality risks during the Classic period in Lower Dover, whereas political status may have slightly buffered against metabolic stress.

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.