Peer-reviewed article
"An Injurious and Utterly Unfit Environment": A Case Study Comparing Dental Evidence of Childhood Stress in Nineteenth Century Working-Class Peoples From British and Colonial New Zealand Contexts.
Kavale-Henderson LA, Buckberry J, Buckley H, Cameron C, King C et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This peer-reviewed study uses dental markers from archaeological remains to compare childhood stress in nineteenth-century working-class populations in London and Otago, New Zealand. Researchers examined accentuated lines in tooth enamel from 25 individuals in the UK and 24 European migrants in New Zealand. The study found that all London individuals and 92% of New Zealand migrants showed evidence of stress during their first 2.5 years of life, with UK adults showing higher stress markers than New Zealand adults.
Key points
- All individuals interred in London and 92% of those in New Zealand showed accentuated lines indicating childhood stress within the first 2.5 years of life
- UK adults had a median of 13 accentuated lines per individual compared to 5 for New Zealand adults in the first 2.5 years
- Stress markers most frequently occurred during infancy across all three groups examined
- The study provides the first direct comparison of dental evidence of stress between migrants and origin population
- Temporal patterns of stress differed between groups in association with age
Limitations
This is a historical bioarchaeological study using skeletal remains, so it cannot directly measure living children's well-being, contemporary interventions, or outcomes beyond infancy stress markers. The sample sizes are very small (n=25 UK, n=24 NZ), limiting generalisability.
Abstract
Objectives During the nineteenth century, the health and living conditions of many working-class European peoples declined in association with growing industrialization and urbanization. Emigration to British colonies grew as people sought to escape such hardships. This research presents the first direct comparison of dental markers of stress in a case study of migrants to a British colony (Otago, New Zealand) alongside a contemporaneous assemblage representing an origin population (London, United Kingdom). Materials and methods Dental markers of childhood stress, accentuated lines, were observed in thin-sections of archeological teeth from adults (n = 9) and children (n = 16) interred in London, United Kingdom (UK), and adult European migrants interred in Otago, New Zealand (NZ) (n = 24) using standard histological techniques. Results All individuals interred in London, and 92% (22/24) of those in New Zealand exhibited evidence of accentuated line formation within the first 2.5 years of life. There was no difference in median accentuated line occurrence between adults and children interred in the UK. However, NZ adults had a lower median occurrence of accentuated lines over the first 2.5 years since birth (5 ALs/individual) than UK adults (13 ALs/individual). Accentuated lines most frequently occurred in infancy for all three groups examined. However, temporal trends in accentuated line occurrence differed between groups in association with age. Discussion These results highlight the impact of childhood stresses on working-class people growing up during the nineteenth century, underlining potential differences in the childhood experiences of hardship in individuals that remained in Britain and those that departed for foreign soils.