Bodies in transition: Tooth ablation from Neolithic to Iron Age in Vietnam and Southeast Asia

IF 1.5 2区历史学 0 ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeological Research in Asia Pub Date : 2025-12-01 Epub Date: 2025-10-09 DOI:10.1016/j.ara.2025.100661

Yue Zhang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study synthesizes data from Neolithic to Iron Age Vietnam (4000–1900 BP) through the lens of the customary practice of tooth ablation. Its emergence, localization, and eventual transformation—whether into other forms of dental modification or into complete abandonment—closely correspond with successive cycles of interregional interaction and social transition. This local trajectory is then compared with neighboring regions, including Cambodia and Taiwan, revealing comparable yet contextually nuanced adaptations. The findings highlight tooth ablation as both a persistent marker of group affiliation and a flexible medium for negotiating identity. As such, it offers a powerful case through which to examine how embodied practices responded to, and were shaped by, broader dynamics of sociocultural change across prehistoric Southeast Asia. The results bring more attention to the roles of individual adornment choices and bodily expressions within the evolving environment of Southeast Asia since the Neolithic period.

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过渡中的身体：越南和东南亚从新石器时代到铁器时代的牙齿消融

本研究综合了从新石器时代到铁器时代越南（4000-1900 BP）的数据，通过牙齿消融的习俗实践。它的出现、定位和最终转变——无论是转变为其他形式的牙齿修饰还是完全放弃——与区域间相互作用和社会转型的连续周期密切相关。然后，将当地的发展轨迹与邻近地区（包括柬埔寨和台湾）进行比较，揭示出可比较但又具有背景差异的适应性。研究结果强调，牙齿消融既是群体归属的持久标志，也是协商身份的灵活媒介。因此，它提供了一个强有力的案例，通过它来研究具体化的实践是如何回应的，并被史前东南亚社会文化变革的更广泛动态所塑造。这一结果引起了人们对新石器时代以来东南亚不断变化的环境中个人装饰选择和身体表达的作用的更多关注。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Archaeological Research in Asia ARCHAEOLOGY-

CiteScore

2.50

自引率

13.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.