Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200–1500 CE

TY - JOUR

T1 - Health inequality in medieval Cambridge, 1200–1500 CE

AU - Dittmar, Jenna M.

AU - Inskip, Sarah A.

AU - Rose, Alice K.

AU - Cessford, Craig

AU - Mitchell, Piers D.

AU - O'Connell, Tamsin C.

AU - Robb, John E.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). American Journal of Biological Anthropology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

PY - 2024/8/24

Y1 - 2024/8/24

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - friars

KW - inequality

KW - poor childhood environment

KW - poverty

KW - whole town approach

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85201981499&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/ajpa.24993

DO - 10.1002/ajpa.24993

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85201981499

SN - 2692-7691

JO - American Journal of Biological Anthropology

JF - American Journal of Biological Anthropology

M1 - e24993

ER -