Intentionally-damaged human skeletal remains indicating cannibalism and/or violence have been found scattered on room floors and deposited in pits in more than 40 archeological sites in Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. Most of the bone assemblages were in Anasazi sites. Using five standardized taphonomic criteria (perimortem cut marks, intentional breakage, burning, anvil/hammerstone abrasions, and many missing vertebrae), 32 assemblages meet our minimal requirement for proposing cannibalism. In the 32 cannibalized series, the minimal number of individuals (MNI) ranges from 1 to 35. The average MNI is 9.2 per site. The total MNI is 295. All ages and both sexes are represented. The earliest grouping of sites with evidence of cannibalism date around A.D. 900; the latest single site, A.D. 1700. The average date for the 32 sites is ca. A.D. 1100. Two proximate explanations involve social pathology and/or Mesoamerican influence. Prehistoric Southwest cannibalism has been explained by starvation (3 sites), social pathology (several sites), and recently, as a violent form of institutionalized social control associated with the post-A.D. 900 rise of the highly complex Chacoan social and religious center in New Mexico, its regional road system, and the linked outlier multi-storied Great House communities that were built elsewhere in New Mexico and also in Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. There is no identifiable direct connection with cannibalism in Mexico. When considered with the sites evidencing extensive violence, Southwest cannibalism appears to be part of a socially-pathological and chaotic development that began in the Anasazi area, possibly triggered by Mesoamerican influences such as Mexican traders.

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Dental caries of Japanese Neolithic Jomon skeletons derived from the thirteen sites was investigated. Results indicated that (1) caries is infrequent in the teeth of the early stage, (2) the teeth affected by caries increased in and after the middle stages, (3) the teeth from shell middens facing the open sea possibly has high degree rate of caries rather than those of inland sea, (4) the teeth in the late and final stages, regardless of the locations, had a certain measure of caries. From these results one may say that the incidences of dental caries in Jomon skeletons differ according to geographical and/or chronological circumstances. Perhaps, these incidences mainly reflect various dietary differentiation of this period. Furthermore, it is inferred that the high rate of dental caries in the Jomon population (8.2%) supports the theory that they relied heavily upon plant foods as a major source of nutrition.

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Our aims were to assess the suitability of Fourier harmonics in describing dental arch form in South Australian twins and to estimate the contribution of genetic factors to observed variability. Dental casts of 37 monozygous (MZ) and 19 dizygous (DZ) twin pairs were selected, all subjects being male Caucasians with minimal dental crowding and no history of orthodontic treatment. There were no significant differences between the groups in any of the Fourier co-efficients. In the variance of differences between twins the constant value a₀ and first amplitude had significant genetic variances at the level of 5% or less. The highest correlations within MZ pairs (r>0.72) were for a₀, representing arch size, and for the first and second Fourier amplitudes (amp₁ and amp₂), representing the arch depth/arch breadth ratio and the relative taper of the arch respectively, in both the maxillary and mandibular arches. The results of this study confirm that the Fourier method provides an accurate, reproducible method for describing dental arch size and shape, and suggest that genetic factors contribute mainly to the variation in arch size and to arch depth/arch breadth ratio rather than to other aspects of dental arch morphology.

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Metrical dental characteristics were investigated in the Kofun series in southern Kyushu. The results of t-tests and Penrose's size distances showed that tooth size in the Kofun series in southern Kyushu was larger than those of the Jomon series and the Yayoi series in northwestern Kyushu, except for the buccolingual diameters in males of the Yayoi series, which were almost equal in size, although smaller than that of the Yayoi series in northern Kyushu. As regards Penrose's shape distances, the Kofun series in southern Kyushu was close to the Yayoi series in northern Kyushu as well as the West-Kofun and East-Kofun series. On the basis of bone and dental morphology, the Yayoi people in northwestern Kyushu are considered descendants of the Jomon people. However, the Yayoi people in northern Kyushu are generally thought to have been influenced by immigrants. Matsumura (1990) noted that the dental characteristics of the West-Kofun and East-Kofun series were closely related to the Yayoi immigrant people in general. Over all, the dental characteristics of the Kofun series of southern Kyushu are closer to those of the immigrant population than those of the native population. Therefore, the Kofun people in southern Kyushu should be considered influenced by the immigrant population.

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To clarify the diversity of TW2 skeletal maturity, spline-smoothed individual velocity curves of the RUS, Carpal and 20-Bone scores of 44 Tokyo girls of which menarche was recorded correctly, were obtained. On these curves 21 variables of age, intensity, and scores at take-off and at peak velocity, and scores at menarche were obtained. Three subject girls lacked the RUS maturity peak, 10 girls lacked the Carpal maturity peak, and 7 lacked the 20-Bone maturity peak. On an average, the Carpal and 20-Bone score take-offs occur at age 7.8, followed by the RUS score take-off at age 9.5; thereafter the Carpal score peak occurs at age 9.1, the 20-Bone score peak at age 9.6, and the RUS score peak at age 11.8; finally, a half year later, at age 12.3, the menarche occurs.

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