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Low Bone Mass in Past and Present Aboriginal Populations

  • Susan K. Pfeiffer
  • Richard A. Lazenby
Chapter
Part of the Advances in Nutritional Research book series (ANUR, volume 9)

Abstract

A slight and gradual loss of bone mass is characteristic of all aging primates, if they live long enough (Garn, 1970; Burr, 1980). Nevertheless, the observation of reduced bone mass among ancestral human skeletal remains is limited to relatively recent populations. Since the domestication of plants roughly 12,000 years ago, skeletal remains from disparate parts of the world have occasionally shown low bone mass. Perhaps earlier populations did not suffer age-related bone loss because they died at young ages (Pfeiffer, 1990), or perhaps their diet or lifestyle facilitated effective bone maintenance. Past human populations were more dependent on local natural resources and their own physical labor for subsistence, a cultural pattern maintained by only a few geographically isolated aboriginal groups today. These “anthropological populations” have been portrayed as natural paradigms whose dietary habits might be studied as representations of our species’ natural “set point” for nutritional requirements, and against which we might evaluate modern regimens and their biological consequences (Eaton et al., 1988; Eaton and Nelson, 1991).

Keywords

Bone Mass Cortical Bone Loss Skeletal Sample Local Natural Resource Prehistoric Population 
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© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1994

Authors and Affiliations

  • Susan K. Pfeiffer
    • 1
  • Richard A. Lazenby
    • 2
  1. 1.School of Human BiologyUniversity of GuelphGuelphCanada
  2. 2.Anthropology ProgrammeUniversity of Northern British ColumbiaPrince GeorgeCanada

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