I began by exploring the page for the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, where I then came across the Dental Anthropology Association. The Dental Anthropology Association uses the dentitions of both past and presents humans to figure out how old the remains are, what kind of diet the individual was consuming, how healthy they were overall, and sometimes they can even learn about cultural rituals. All of this information is used to compare the lifestyles of individuals and/or populations in the past to the lifestyles of individuals/populations in the present. The study of teeth remains can essentially be used to learn about different ways that humans could have changed over time, specifically in regards to what they were eating.
The health of the teeth is one of the main ways that dental anthropologists are able to identify the age of the remains. The amount of plaque that is grown on the remains is tested to measure its growth over time, which is then used to estimate the age of the remains. This is extremely useful in studying changes between humans in the past and humans in the present. Studying many different sets of teeth from different times in human history can be used to set up a timeline that gives us information on exactly how different factors in history have affected the health and diet of different societies throughout history.
There are many different dental modifications that can be associated with different cultural practices. Modern dental modification practices would be orthodontics, but there are many other dental modification practices from different societies. For example, the Mayans would grind their teeth down to points or rectangles, and they would drill holes in their teeth to insert jewelry into them. Studying the remains of human teeth is one of the ways we have been able to learn about different societies in the past. With knowledge of the past comes the knowledge of how humans have changed and evolved over time.
There is a lot that dental anthropologists can learn by studying the shape of the teeth. Different species have different types of teeth to accommodate the different types of foods that are being consumed. Carnivores have long canines in order to cut meat, herbivores have large flat molars for grinding plants, etc. Studying the ways that human teeth have evolved over time has led us to believe that there is evidence that human teeth are a result of natural selection. These types of studies are extremely important in answering anthropological questions that surround the idea of natural selection and evolution.
Overall, dental anthropologists (through the study of the development, eruption, number, size, morphology, modification, wear, and many other aspects of teeth) are able to piece together many different aspects of human lifestyle in order to learn more about how humans, as a species, have evolved over time or have changed practices over time. This is a huge contribution to, not only the field of biological anthropology but anthropology as a whole. Dental anthropologists can gather information regarding the evolution of humans, the cultural practices, and many other factors that speak to the human lifestyle.
Hey! I looked around on the page for the American Association of Physical Anthropologists already because I was going to research this topic, but ended up with medical anthropology. I have never heard of the Dental Anthropology Association. I am interested to hear that the Dental Anthropology Association uses the past and present to research on old remains, the health of those remains, and cultural rituals. I agree that the study of teeth remains is very important because they show us how humans have adapted, evolved, and changed overtime and maybe why that is so. Also, you mentioned that they can study of what humans have been eating. This helps us link us humans nowadays to the humans many years ago and the similarities and differences between time periods.
Hey Julia! Your post is really interesting, and I never thought of dental anthropology as a subfield of biological anthropology until now! Thinking about paleoanthropologists being able to understand gender, age, health, etc. of various sets of bones is really intriguing in itself but being able to look at teeth and learn all types of information (such as diets, cultural practices, how humans have evolved and so on) is not only fascinating, but also incredibly useful. Your post is also reminiscent of the podcast we listened to this week, both in the talk about cavities, as well as just comparison with other, older humans or even other primates. The buildup of plaque, creation of enamel, as well as the formation of cavities and how they compare from Neanderthals to modern humans, or even hunters and gatherers and those who participated in agriculture provides a lot of information about evolution and the effect of switching to agriculture. Hopefully we learn more about dental anthropology, even just a little, because it sounds like it adds a lot to the field as a whole!
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading your work especially about the Dental Anthropology Association because just pete1256 I have never heard of this. I just find shocking how there is a specific group that focuses on the teeth! With today’s technology, we are able to learn so much like you said the type of food that they ingest to the evolution of the teeth. It is very useful information that can help us understand the past of a certain group.
Also, I liked how you the Mayan’s on how they ate and the practices that they did. This reminded me of an article I read “Nacirema” which is spelled backgrounds for America. If, you are not familiar it mostly has to do with teeth, medicine, and potions, and healers.
Hey Julia!
I am currently a pre-dental student at MSU so I did my blog post on Dental Anthropology as well. It was very fascinating to read what you posted compared to mine. I learned a lot from yours that I, personally, did not even know or blog about. One of the things I found so fascinating was when you said that the Mayans would ground their teeth down to points and drill holes to insert their jewelry in them. I did not know that ever happened and I find that oddly cool. Once I read that, my first thought was “wow I wonder what they drilled with back in the day. Especially for their teeth”. I am so interested in this that I am going to research this and figure out what they did use and why. This was super interesting to read and thank you for this wonderful blog post!