Ancient Patagonian hunter-gatherers took care of their injured and disabled, study finds

In a study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology, Dr. Victoria Romano and her colleagues analyzed the bones of 189 hunter-gatherers who lived during the Late Holocene (~4000 to 250 BP) in Patagonia.

Their aim was to determine the social implications of traumatic injuries experienced in non-sedentary hunter-gatherers. To do this, 3,179 skeletal elements from 25 archaeological sites were analyzed.

They found that around 20% of individuals experienced some form of bone trauma from mild to severe. Interestingly, both males and females exhibited a similar number of injuries, while more adults experienced trauma compared to children.

The majority of these injuries were the result of accidents, although Dr. Romano highlights the difficulty in determining the cause of such injuries, saying, “It is difficult to determine whether the injuries were accidental or the result of interpersonal violence. We opted to consider that most injuries are likely attributable to accidents, as it is challenging to distinguish between fractures caused by falls or by conflict without additional evidence.

“Two injuries were potentially linked to violence, as they involved arrowheads embedded in the bone; however, it is also possible that these individuals were accidentally struck.”

The injuries were categorized into three types: Mild Care, Moderate Care, and Intensive Care. Mild Care represented the majority of injuries and were typically characterized by injuries that required only moderate care without substantial changes to the group dynamic. These included cranial and nasal fractures, as well as clavicle and rib injuries, which would typically heal in a few weeks.

Moderate Care injuries affected around 18% of cases and included injuries that required between three and five months to heal. These could be arm and upper limb fractures and likely would have influenced group dynamics to some extent. Due to these types of injuries, some daily activities would have been inhibited, including tool production, butchering, climbing, and grinding plant materials.

And finally, Intensive Care made up ~13% of cases and included any injuries that could have needed care and attention for six months or even a lifetime.

One particularly traumatic injury found in the study was that of an individual with severe hip joint damage, where the ball of the thigh bone and the hip socket were misaligned and deformed.

This injury could have resulted from a fall in which something heavy struck the affected area, thus dislocating the hip joint. Alternatively, the injury may have been caused by a childhood illness, specifically Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, where the blood supply to the hip is disrupted, resulting in the deterioration of the bone and a gradual deformation of the joint.

The fact that the bone shows signs of complete healing indicates that they not only received care, but that they lived for years after the injury occurred.

While individual case studies of care in early hunter-gatherer societies exist, this study is the first to analyze such cases on a population level specifically for non-sedentary hunter-gatherers.

The insights are particularly valuable for understanding how mobility constraints affected caregiving practices. When asked whether earlier periods in Patagonia also have evidence of caregiving, Dr. Romano had this to say, “Yes, there is some evidence suggesting that interpersonal care was practiced in earlier periods of Patagonia.

“For example, a case of a calcaneus injury from the Middle Holocene has been documented, which suggests that care was provided. However, there are no population-level studies in Argentina addressing care practices in earlier periods.”

Future population-level studies may provide insight into how care dynamics change over time and if earlier populations exhibited similar responses to injury and caregiving.

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