3.4 Urban populations typically exhibit:- Chronic under-nutrition- High levels of infection- Shortened lifespans- High infant mortality (“graveyards of babies”)Cities were less healthy than rural life (until less than 100 years ago-global infant mortality)- Rates dropped due to sewer systems (not medicine)Law of Natural Urban Decrease- Urban mortality is so high that cities depends on in-migration from countryside to maintain population- Tested to see if this law also applies to older cities (Teotihuacan Culture)o Preserved extremely well; covers 8 square miles, at its peak it had 200,000 residentso Commoners lived in neighborhoods of apartment complexeso There were rich and poor neighborhoods as well as ethnic neighborhoodso Could clearly put together the inhabitants and their dwelling because they buriedthe dead below the floorso Occupied AD 200-650o There were generations of crafts-people (not farmers)- Tlajinga 33 burial populationo 68 graves for 68 individuals; refuse piles for 42 individuals (ritual acts of warriors, cannibalism represented by the 42)- Porotic hyperostosis (anemia) – was rare- Low life expectancy (survived to 1 year, lived 28.6 years)- Infant mortality = 30%- Lots of biological stress markers (teeth, bones)o Tlajinga 33 had four times the health risk of enamel hypoplasias than ventilla; tibial periostosis was more prominent in Tlajinga 33; wealth is linked to health- Overall at Teotihuacano High infant mortality and low life expectancyo Law of natural urban decrease was neededo Level of health = 17th century Londono Cross-cultural implications of an ‘urban’ health- Immigration and assimilation and Teotihuacan led to studies on the bone chemistry- Homelands and migration: strontium ratio 86Sr/87Sro Bedrock, soil, groundwater, humans- Ratio in food chain varies place to place depending on local geology- Ratio in permanently fixed in tooth enamel when teeth form- Ratio not permanent in bone because bones renew (using Sr ratio from local food and water)- 18O/16O- Differences in local rainwater; (reflects pattern of temp, humidity, altitude, distance fromsea); taken up in food chain- Comparing bones to teetho Ratio permanently fix in tooth enamel when teeth formo Ratio not permanent in bone because bones renew (using Sr ratio from local foodand water)o Teeth will have homeland (childhood) ratioo Bones will reflect the change over time- Total time-span seen in teeth is 6 months to 15 years Tlajinga 33- 29% of inhabitants were long-term immigrants that grew up elsewhere- No association with gender- No maintenance of homeland traditions in burial, diet (assimilated)Oaxaca Barrio- Ethnic neighborhood of 12 apartments (700 people)- Maintain Oaxaca burial traditions- Sample of 56 burials analyzedo Showed that the oldest people were biologically from Oaxacao Later immigrants from Oaxaca and Oaxaca colonies elsewhereo Children moving around a great deal (with mother)o Ex #409: born in Teo, more to Oaxaca, return- 80% of burial population were immigrants, or born in Teo but spent part of their childhood