Entheseal changes and sexual division of labor in a North-African population: The case of the pre-Hispanic period of the Gran Canaria Island (11th-15th c. CE)

Publication date: Available online 28 January 2015 Source:HOMO - Journal of Comparative Human Biology Author(s): J. Santana-Cabrera , J. Velasco-Vázquez , A. Rodríguez-Rodríguez The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between entheseal changes and sexual division of labor in the pre-Hispanic population of Gran Canaria Island (Spain). Ethnohistorical records from the period of contact between Europeans and the Canarian indigenous population provide rich information about the different activities performed by men and women. For this purpose, entheseal changes in a sample of 138 individuals (82 males and 56 females) buried in ten pre-Hispanic cemeteries (11th and 15th centuries cal. CE) were analyzed. Forty-one entheses located in the clavicle, humerus, ulna and radius were analyzed (fibrous and fibro-cartilaginous attachment sites). Entheses were graded using a visual and descriptive standard which summarized the entheseal changes. This method interprets the changes as a sign of robustness on a scale from low to high development and includes enthesopathies. The intra- and inter-observer error of this method was minimal. Sex differences in the degree of robustness, bilateral asymmetry, sexual dimorphism and principal components analyses were tested in this sample. The results indicate significant variance in the entheseal robustness between males and females. They also suggest the impact of certain biomechanical chains (pronosupination, shoulder rotati...
Source: HOMO Journal of Comparative Human Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research