Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200-1500 CE.
Am J Biol Anthropol
; 185(2): e24993, 2024 Oct.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39180499
ABSTRACT
Health inequality is not only a major problem today; it left its mark upon past societies too. For much of the past, health inequality has been poorly studied, mostly because bioarchaeologists have concentrated upon single sites rather than a broader social landscape. This article compares 476 adults in multiple locations of medieval Cambridge (UK). Samples include ordinary townspeople (All Saints), people living in a charitable institution (the Hospital of St. John), and members of a religious order (the Augustinian Friary). These groups shared many conditions of life, such as a similar range of diseases, risk of injury, and vertebral disk degeneration. However, people living on charity had more indicators of poor childhood health and diet, lower adult stature, and a younger age at death, reflecting the health effects of poverty. In contrast, the Augustinian friars were members of a prosperous, well-endowed religious house. Compared with other groups, they were taller (perhaps a result of a richer diet during their adolescent growth period); their adult carbon and nitrogen isotope values are higher, suggesting a diet higher in terrestrial and/or marine animal protein; and they had the highest prevalence of foot problems related to fashionable late medieval footwear. As this illustrates, health inequality will take particular forms depending upon the specificities of a social landscape; except in unusual circumstances where a site and its skeletal samples represent a real cross-section of society, inequality is best investigated by comparison across sites.
Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Disparidades nos Níveis de Saúde
Limite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
País como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article