Paleoepidemiology of Infectious Disease in the Dickson Mounds Population

The major focus of paleopathology has been the delimiting of disease in time and space. Information about the history of specific diseases is the objective of many of these studies. While the chronological and geographical dimensions of paleopathology contribute significantly to our knowledge of disease, there are limits to this approach, which often fails to consider the interaction of biology and culture in the diseases of prehistoric populations. The biocultural approach in paleopathology attempts to define ecological factors in the adaptation of prehistoric populations to their environment which inhibit or promote the disease process. This ecological analysis has been aided by a paleoepidemiological perspective on the interaction of three variables-host, insult, and the environment. The reconstruction of ecological variables in paleoepide-