Enthesopathies as occupational stress markers: Evidence from the upper limb (original) (raw)

2009, American Journal of Physical Anthropology

Enthesopathies-that is, ''musculo-skeletal stress markers''-are frequently used to reconstruct past lifestyles and activity patterns. Relatively little attention has been paid in physical anthropology to methodological gaps implicit in this approach: almost all methods previously employed neglect current medical insights into enthesopathies and the distinction between healthy and pathological aspects has been arbitrary. This study presents a new visual method of studying fibrocartilaginous enthesopathies of the upper limb (modified from Villotte: Bull Mém Soc Anthropol Paris n.s. 18 (2006) 65-85), and application of this method to 367 males who died between the 18th and 20th centuries, from four European identified skeletal collections: the Christ Church Spitalfields Collection, the identified skeletal collection of the anthropological museum of the University of Coimbra, and the Sassari and Bologna collections of the mu-Grant sponsors: Maison des Sciences de l'Homme d'Aquitaine; Ministère de la culture, France (Projet Aires Culturelles) Synthesys Project. *Correspondence to: Sébastien Villotte, Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Populations du Passé (LAPP, UMR 5199), in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com).

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