ANCIENT OBSTETRIC HAZARDS AND FEMALE MORTALITY

The sexual differences in mortality of prehistoric or early historic peoples is discussed and an explanatory theory proposed. It has sometimes been suggested that women died at a younger age than men (4-6 years) because of the hazards of pregnancy and childbirth. Excavations in which a fetus is unquestionably in a womans abdomen still leave unproved the assumption of an obstetric death. In fact the literature suggest that obstetric calamities are rare. Obstructed labors only become common from the 17th to early 20th centuries. The commonest cause here is thought to be rickets as a product of the urban slum. Diabetes is another possibility for obstructed labor but was uncommon in ancient times. Death due to infection was common only in the 18th and 19th century childbed and especially in hospital deliveries. Evidence suggests hemorrhage was also uncommon before the Renaissance. Historic and skeletal evidence suggest that reproductive life was actually very short for prehistoric and early historic women allowing time to produce only 5 or 6 children. It is suggested that nutritional differences between the sexes in early childhood led to the earlier death of women. This is based on evidence from the extent of dental attrition in women hypoplastic defects in teeth and evidence given by Harriss lines of arrested growth which appear at an earlier age in girls than boys.