ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD

This essay explores the idea that arsenic poisoning was the impetus for the origin of the oldest mummification practice in the world. The Chinchorro people artificially mummified fetuses and infants starting 7000 years ago, but we do not know why. The Chinchorro lived in an extremely toxic environme...

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Autor principal:	Arriaza,Bernardo T.
Lenguaje:	English
Publicado:	Universidad de Tarapacá. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. Departamento de Antropología 2005
Materias:	Arseniasis fetal health artificial mummification spontaneous abortions stillbirths infant mortality
Acceso en línea:	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-73562005000200010
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spelling	oai:scielo:S0717-735620050002000102006-04-19ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLDArriaza,Bernardo T. Arseniasis fetal health artificial mummification spontaneous abortions stillbirths infant mortality This essay explores the idea that arsenic poisoning was the impetus for the origin of the oldest mummification practice in the world. The Chinchorro people artificially mummified fetuses and infants starting 7000 years ago, but we do not know why. The Chinchorro lived in an extremely toxic environment; the Camarones River had arsenic levels up to 1000µg/L, which is a hundred times the modern safety level. Chronic exposure to arsenic produces spontaneous abortions and preterm births. Interestingly, the earliest Chinchorro mummies are all infants. Under these environmental conditions, the Chinchorro miscarriage rate was likely 30 times higher than any other Andean population. Thus, arseniasis is a plausible environmental hypothesis to explain the origin of the Chinchorro's unique mortuary practice and infant mummification. In other words, Chinchorro mortuary practice began as a cultural response to an environmental phenomenon that was deadly to the populationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessUniversidad de Tarapacá. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. Departamento de AntropologíaChungará (Arica) v.37 n.2 20052005-12-01text/htmlhttp://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-73562005000200010en10.4067/S0717-73562005000200010
institution	Scielo Chile
collection	Scielo Chile
language	English
topic	Arseniasis fetal health artificial mummification spontaneous abortions stillbirths infant mortality
spellingShingle	Arseniasis fetal health artificial mummification spontaneous abortions stillbirths infant mortality Arriaza,Bernardo T. ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
description	This essay explores the idea that arsenic poisoning was the impetus for the origin of the oldest mummification practice in the world. The Chinchorro people artificially mummified fetuses and infants starting 7000 years ago, but we do not know why. The Chinchorro lived in an extremely toxic environment; the Camarones River had arsenic levels up to 1000µg/L, which is a hundred times the modern safety level. Chronic exposure to arsenic produces spontaneous abortions and preterm births. Interestingly, the earliest Chinchorro mummies are all infants. Under these environmental conditions, the Chinchorro miscarriage rate was likely 30 times higher than any other Andean population. Thus, arseniasis is a plausible environmental hypothesis to explain the origin of the Chinchorro's unique mortuary practice and infant mummification. In other words, Chinchorro mortuary practice began as a cultural response to an environmental phenomenon that was deadly to the population
author	Arriaza,Bernardo T.
author_facet	Arriaza,Bernardo T.
author_sort	Arriaza,Bernardo T.
title	ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
title_short	ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
title_full	ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
title_fullStr	ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
title_full_unstemmed	ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD
title_sort	arseniasis as an environmental hypothetical explanation for the origin of the oldest artificial mummification practice in the world
publisher	Universidad de Tarapacá. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Jurídicas. Departamento de Antropología
publishDate	2005
url	http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-73562005000200010
work_keys_str_mv	AT arriazabernardot arseniasisasanenvironmentalhypotheticalexplanationfortheoriginoftheoldestartificialmummificationpracticeintheworld
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ARSENIASIS AS AN ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOTHETICAL EXPLANATION FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE OLDEST ARTIFICIAL MUMMIFICATION PRACTICE IN THE WORLD

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