An epidemiological analysis of mortality and morbidity in five late prehistoric populations from the upper and central Texas coast

The upper and central coast of Texas has been a focus of considerable archeological and ethnohistorical investigation. While the body of data regarding the subsistence strategy, technology, and social structure of the prehistoric natives is growing, relatively little has been done to describe the health status of these populations. One of the primary goals of this volume is to describe the disease patterns, health status, and demography of the prehistoric groups in this region in order to create a useful database for archeological analysis. In doing so, comparisons of pathology incidence rates, demography, and stature will be provided. Secondarily, variation in disease distribution will be investigated in order to more fully understand the factors which affect disease etiology. It is hoped that this approach will provide archeologists and physical anthropologists with a comparative data set and an integrated model of disease processes which describe the patterning of some pathologies visible in dry bone