Marcadores metabólico-nutricionales e infecciosos en la Misión Salesiana “Nuestra Señora de La Candelaria”, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (siglos diecinueve y veinte)

GARCÍA LABORDE, PAMELA; D'ANGELO DEL CAMPO, MANUEL DOMINGO; VALENZUELA, LUCIANO ÓSCAR; SALEMME, MÓNICA CIRA; GUICHÓN, RICARDO ANÍBAL

Latin American Antiquity

Society for American Archaeology

Año: 2023 p. 1 - 21

1045-6635

The study of the Salesian Mission (nineteenth and twentieth centuries) contributes to the knowledge of the impact that religious missions had in America. Historical records suggest a change in diet, overcrowding, and high frequency of infectious lung diseases, such as tuberculosis. Many health issues arise from dietary imbalances and chronic nutritional inadequacy, making individuals more susceptible to infectious diseases; this, in turn, reduces nutrient availability to the person, creating a synergistic feedback loop. The objective of this work is to explore the impact that the continuous contact had on native populations of Southern Patagonia through analysis of the relationship among infectious pathologies, stress, and diet in individuals recovered in the mission. We compared individuals recovered in the cemetery to previously published information from individuals recovered in the north of the Tierra del Fuego Great Island. The high percentages ofpaleopathological indicators, such as porotic hyperostosis, cribra orbitalia, enamel hypoplasia, caries, and dental wear, together with the isotopic data, suggest a dietary change toward a reduction in food variability, generating a nutritional imbalance. Such imbalance and high frequency of infectious diseases could have acted synergistically to produce a reduction in resistance to common pathological agents. Therefore, these factors could have had an influence on the increase in mortality of individuals from the mission.