| Abstract: |
The agricultural transition has long been recognized to have been a very important period in human prehistory. Its timing and consequences, including the effects on human health, have been intensively researched. In recent decades, this has included the idea that there is a universal positive correlation between the adoption of agriculture based on a carbohydrate staple crop and dental caries prevalence. This is mainly based on evidence from America, where maize was the staple crop. On the basis of evidence from prehistoric skeletal samples from a series of prehistoric sites in Southeast Asia, this correlation does not appear to apply in areas of the world where the staple crop is rice. Although we have loed only at dental caries, we suggest that caution be applied in the drawing of inferences about subsistence changes from dental health. Patterns reflecting the adoption of one starchy staple are not necessarily applicable to all such crops. Test the hypothesis that the transition to an agricultural economy based on rice resulted in an increase in dental caries. Three sties were analyzed: Kh Phanom Di (Central Thailand), and Ban Lum Kao and Noen U-Le from Northeast Thailand. KPD 2000-1500 BC - Neolithic BLK 1000-500 BC - Bronze NUL 300BC-AD300 - Iron Dental pathologies are an important indicator of dietary change because of the direct effect of diet and the high level of preservation of dental enamel. pg 69 Traditionally, it has been assumed the development of resulted in a higher prevalence of dental caries. This is based on the assumptions that agriculture resulted in a diet with a high proportion of a carbohydrate staple, and second, that all carbohydrates are cariogenic.
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