HEALTH AMONG CLASSIC-PERIOD URBAN AND RURAL MAYA: A REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract Health benefits among the members of state-level societies may vary depending on sex, social privilege, and whether the individual resides in an urban or rural setting. Human skeletal remains are prone to express individual life experiences and, ultimately, well-being. This research elaborates on these correlates by contextualizing the physiological stresses among Classic Maya hinterland populations in comparison to their urban peers. Comparisons are made using the frequencies and expression of enamel hypoplasia, caries, porotic hyperostosis, infectious osteomyelitis/subperiosteal reaction and osteoporosis in 842 adult skeletons of both sexes from 63 peripheral and centric, inland, lowland settlements. The results suggest problematic inland weaning diets and higher infectious load among rural populations. While comparisons between urban and rural lifeways show inconsistent load differences, our results indicate repeated distinctions between the sexes. We cautiously interpret this pattern as an indication of a physically demanding regime of rural life compared to a more sedentary routine among urban peers and gendered lifestyles in general. We conclude that apart from these distinctions (and potential sample biases), the health costs versus benefits impacted rural lifestyles in a complex and non-uniform fashion during the first millennium a.d., rejecting clear-cut hierarchical conceptualizations while inviting more nuanced causal explorations.