Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations

The lifestyle of past populations can be reconstructed with help of several skeletal indicators. One such indicator is trauma. Trauma can be used for inferring about daily activities, subsistence strategy, division of labor, occupational hazards as well as warfare. Paleoepidemiology aimed at the eva...

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Main Author: Lukáš Friedl
Format: Article
Language:ces
Published: University of West Bohemia, Pilsen 2011-04-01
Series:AntropoWebzin
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Online Access:http://antropologie.zcu.cz/webzin/index.php/webzin/article/view/67
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author Lukáš Friedl
author_facet Lukáš Friedl
author_sort Lukáš Friedl
collection DOAJ
description The lifestyle of past populations can be reconstructed with help of several skeletal indicators. One such indicator is trauma. Trauma can be used for inferring about daily activities, subsistence strategy, division of labor, occupational hazards as well as warfare. Paleoepidemiology aimed at the evaluation of pathologies in populations provides a tool, however, since the tool is inferential and the living population does not exist anymore, it also brings some problems in the interpretation. This paper discusses these problem areas on a specific example of fracture frequency interpretations in skeletal populations. There are two main sources of interpretation confusion: methods and biology. Methodological problems are preservation, estimates of number of individuals, age, and sex, fracture recognition and diagnosis, and chronology of burial sites. Biological problems arise from processes of senescence, healing, and bone remodeling.
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spelling doaj-art-ec66a9385f2248f5ad2ce6426007c6822025-08-20T02:51:46ZcesUniversity of West Bohemia, PilsenAntropoWebzin1801-88072011-04-0172919665Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populationsLukáš Friedl0Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Philosophy and Arts, West Bohemian University in Pilsen; Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USAThe lifestyle of past populations can be reconstructed with help of several skeletal indicators. One such indicator is trauma. Trauma can be used for inferring about daily activities, subsistence strategy, division of labor, occupational hazards as well as warfare. Paleoepidemiology aimed at the evaluation of pathologies in populations provides a tool, however, since the tool is inferential and the living population does not exist anymore, it also brings some problems in the interpretation. This paper discusses these problem areas on a specific example of fracture frequency interpretations in skeletal populations. There are two main sources of interpretation confusion: methods and biology. Methodological problems are preservation, estimates of number of individuals, age, and sex, fracture recognition and diagnosis, and chronology of burial sites. Biological problems arise from processes of senescence, healing, and bone remodeling.http://antropologie.zcu.cz/webzin/index.php/webzin/article/view/67fracture frequenciestraumapaleoepidemiologyskeletal populationsmethodologybiology
spellingShingle Lukáš Friedl
Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
AntropoWebzin
fracture frequencies
trauma
paleoepidemiology
skeletal populations
methodology
biology
title Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
title_full Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
title_fullStr Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
title_full_unstemmed Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
title_short Confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
title_sort confounding factors in interpreting fracture frequencies in skeletal populations
topic fracture frequencies
trauma
paleoepidemiology
skeletal populations
methodology
biology
url http://antropologie.zcu.cz/webzin/index.php/webzin/article/view/67
work_keys_str_mv AT lukasfriedl confoundingfactorsininterpretingfracturefrequenciesinskeletalpopulations