USING DENTAL METRIC ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND PREHISTORIC POPULATION VARIABILITY ON THE NORTH CAROLINA COASTAL PLAIN

Abstract

Biodistance studies can quantify intra- and inter- population relatedness through non-metric and metric skeletal variables. In this study, dental metric traits of two linguistically distinct Late Woodland (AD 800-1650) populations, the Algonquian and Tuscarora-speaking groups within the North Carolina coastal regions, were assessed to determine if presumed linguistic barriers led to a reduced gene flow. Previous research by Kakaliouras (2003) and Killgrove (2002) using cranial and dental non-metric traits identified few significant differences in frequencies of these traits between the Algonquian and Tuscarora, suggesting little genetic differentiation between the two groups. This research used the dental metrics of 170 Algonquian and 53 Tuscarora individuals found that the Algonquians had significantly more variation in only the canine buccolingual measurement (CBL) (Levene's F=8.6644; p=0.0049). The Tuscarora had significantly more variation in the first premolar mesiodistal measurement (PM1MD) (Levene's F=65.5607; p[less than]0.0001) but otherwise identified no overall significant differences in variation (Van Valen Z=1.45012, p=0.1470). These results largely agree with other studies that utilized various cranial and dental non-metric traits, and indicate that genetic dissimilarity did not follow that of language variability. Furthermore, one site linguistically categorized as Tuscarora but which shows a mixture of Algonquian and Tuscarora culturally-affiliated artifacts, was distinguished as Algonquian in all ten measurements, including the PM1MD (t=-1.99254, p=0.0085), first molar buccolingual measurement (M1BL) (t=1.99254, p=0.0124) and first molar mesiodistal measurement (M1MD) (t=1.99354, p=0.0120).