Sacrum paleopathology in hunter-gatherers from southern Patagonia

D´ANGELO DEL CAMPO MANUEL; MEDIALDEA LAURA; GARCÍA LABORDE PAMELA; SALEMME MÓNICA; SANTIAGO FERNANDO; CAMPO MARTÍN MANUEL ; GONZÁLEZ MARTÍN ARMANDO ; GUICHÓN RICARDO

Chungara

Universidad de Tarapacá

Lugar: Arica; Año: 2021 vol. 53

Sacrum is important for body stability, lowerlimbs attachment and pelvic organs protection. This bone could be affected bycongenital, degenerative or multifactorial pathologies. The aim of thepresent study is to analyse sacral lesions in a sample well preserved remainsfrom Southern Patagonian hunter-gatherers and the possible influences oftemporal-spatial and lifestyle variables, with special attention to theNative-European contact effect. Pathological signs from 56 adult sacral bonesfrom both sexes and comprising a wide chronology range (5200 years BP- 20thcentury), were analyzed following the methodology proposed by Campo (2003,2015). Pathologies analysed showed that native individualswho lived at missionary places presented higher lesion prevalence thanpre-contact and post-contact out of mission samples, except for Schmörl nodes. Ageand sex effect showed similar patterns with respect to other populations. Highprevalence of spondylolysis was observed, similarly to Inuit samples.