Systemic Inflammation and Structural Violence: An Examination of Periodontal Disease Among Individuals From Colonial Peru

This thesis examines bioarchaeological patterns of periodontal disease in the 16th and 17th century Peru during a period of extreme political and socioeconomic instability involving Spanish subjugation of Andean peoples. A growing number of paleopathological studies have begun characterizing the biocultural effects of conquest in the Colonial Andes. Unfortunately, periodontal disease has remained virtually unstudied. Here, this thesis provides the first characterization of periodontal disease severity in Colonial Peru to assess this marker of diet, oral health, and systemic inflammation. The central hypothesis of this thesis predicts that periodontal disease prevalence and severity was greater in the Colonial Muchik town of Mórrope (a setting of heightened economic and biological stress) compared to their Muchik neighbors to the south in Eten (an economically stable community). Established protocols measuring CEJ-alveolar margin distances were used as a measure of periodontitis prevalence/absence and alveolar margin morphology/porosity/recession to assess severity. Sixty-four adults from Mórrope and 115 adults from Eten were examined. Data were analyzed using odds ratio (ÔR) analysis. A higher crude prevalence of periodontitis is observed in Eten (59% vs 36% in Mórrope, which was statistically significant (ÔR=0.38; p=0.01). A statistically significant difference of severity was not observed (ÔR=0.61; p=0.01). Severe expressions of periodontitis were observed in both samples (55% Mórrope and 44% Eten). These unexpected findings were interpreted in the contexts of their archaeological settings, inflammatory disease biology, patterns of other pathological conditions, and isotopic variation to suggest (1) periodontal disease was widespread and severe in these two communities, and; (2) that the extremely high prevalence of antemortem tooth loss and alveolar remodeling in Mórrope obscures documentation of potentially extreme periodontal disease in that community. This prevents straightforward comparisons between these communities and highlights new questions and opportunities in studying periodontitis in historic Peru. This findings are also considered in terms of structural violence, colonial subjugation, and systemic inflammation as embodied in expressions of periodontal disease.

Author

• McPhail, Kayley

• Peru
• Paleopathology
• Bioarchaeology
• Violence
• Archaeology
• Disease

Identifier

hdl:1920/14149

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14149