Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mothers And Infants In The Prehistoric Santa Clara Valley: What Stable Isotopes Tell Us About Ancestral Ohlone Weaning Practices, Alan M. Leventhal, Karen S. Gardner, Rosemary Cambra, Eric J. Bartelink, Antoinette Martinez

Alan M. Leventhal

Breast-feeding and weaning are a part of childhood in all human populations, but the exact timing of these milestones varies between groups. As infants incorporate the nutrients from breast milk into their growing bones, chemical evidence is captured in the form of higher stable nitrogen (δ15N) isotope values. This study interprets δ15N values in the bone collagen of children (n = 24) buried at the Yukisma Mound (CA-SCL-38), in Santa Clara County, California. Radiocarbon dates for this site span 2200-250 B.P., but primarily fall during the Late period (740-230 B.P.). In the one probable mother-infant pair available for study, a …