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We’re all in this together: accessing the maternal-infant relationship in prehistoric Vietnam

Alisha Adams,S. Halcrow,C. King,Melanie J. Miller,Melandri Vlok,A. Millard,D. Gröcke,H. Buckley,K. Domett,H. H. Trinh,T. Minh,M. Oxenham

Published 2021 in The Family in Past Perspective

ABSTRACT

Family can be broadly defined as a community of care, cooperation and shared resources. As we move further into the past, however, our ability to observe these relationships becomes blurred. For most of human history, ethnographic and historical documents are lacking; identity and relationships are therefore inferred through the analyses of mortuary practices and evidence of production through artefacts and features. In this study, we examine the unique connection that exists between mother and infant, illustrating how this relationship gives potential insight into lived experiences in the past. The human skeleton reflects an individual’s biocultural life-course, recording information on diet, health, and stress. Using new methods for inferring physiological stress during the foetal, infant and childhood periods, this chapter investigates the early lives of two subadult individuals through the lens of the maternal-infant nexus from the Neolithic site of Man Bac in Vietnam. We apply a novel approach that incorporates stable isotopic evidence for weaning and diet, with a quantitative method of identifying and measuring linear enamel hypoplasia to assess physiological stress during development. These case studies are interpreted within a bioarchaeology of infant and child-care theoretical model approach that focuses on the maternal-infant nexus, and incorporates information on fertility, palaeopathological data, archaeological data on the natural and social environment, and social organisation.

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