Dimensions of health and social structure in the Early Intermediate Period cemetery at Villa El Salvador, Peru
Abstract
This paper examines relationships between the social structure of a community and the health of its members, based on analysis of human skeletal remains (N = 64) from Villa El Salvador XII (100 BC-AD 100), a prehistoric cemetery located in the lower Lurín Valley, Peru. The ambiguity of social status as conventionally inferred from archaeological context is among the principal complicating factors in such an inquiry. We use multidimensional scaling of skeletal markers to identify the presence of patterned health-based heterogeneity in our sample, without making a priori assumptions about underlying social structure at Villa El Salvador. This procedure situates every skeleton relative to all others in the sample on the basis of multiple health markers, eliciting health groups. Once recognized, the relevance of those groups to social structure can be evaluated by comparison with a broad range of presumptive archaeological status indicators. We test the hypothesis that the distribution of stress indicators in human skeletons covaries with archaeological indicators of social differentiation. Based on multivariate analysis of skeletal indicators, we conclude that the cemetery at Villa El Salvador was utilized by two social groups with different geographic affinities: one of local coastal origin, and the other probably from the upper Lurín Valley or adjacent higher altitudes. These groups differ in skeletal characteristics related to childhood health, probably reflecting systematic…
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Pechenkina and Delgado (2012) found that cranial shape correlates with health and status at Villa El Salvador, Peru, likely related to different populations on the formative central coast and not directly to modification.
“Pechenkina and Delgado (2012) compare cranial shape with health and status in their research at Villa El Salvador, Peru, finding that these patterns correlate and likely are related to the different populations occupying the formative central coast of Peru and are not directly related to modification.”
From Cranial modification and the shapes of heads across the Andes (2020) · cites this paper as Pechenkina and Delgado (2012)
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References 113 · Cited by 62
- Authors
- Pechenkina, E. A., & Delgado, M.
- Affiliations
- Queens College, CUNY (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pechenkina, Ekaterina A.
- Venue
- American Journal of Physical Anthropology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2006
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 218-235
- ISSN
- 0002-9483 (ISSN-L)
- 1096-8644
- OpenAlex
- W2044028127
- Cited by
- 62
- References
- 113
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 27.72
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Physical Anthropology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Archeology › Paleopathology and ancient diseases
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Archaeology and ancient environmental studies
- Keywords
- Early Intermediate Period, prehistoric cemetery, social structure, skeletal stress indicators, child health, cranial deformation, ethnicity, osteoarthritis, labor market inequality, grave goods, Lurín Valley
- MeSH terms
- Archaeology, Bone and Bones, Funeral Rites, Health Status, Humans, Peru, Social Class, History, Ancient
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