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Abstract
For approximately 75 years, interpretations of the rich Cis-Baikal archaeological record (southern Siberia, Russia) strove to place early Holocene hunter-gatherers within an evolutionary framework defined by linearity and increasing social complexity. The three successive cultures of this time period, identified on the basis of cemetery artifact typologies, were characterized by varying degrees of social and sexual differentiation and quality of life. Recent research has reduced the number of discrete cultures to two and inverted their chronological order. Furthermore, it is now apparent that a thousand-year hiatus separates the disappearance of the first group (Kitoi) from the appearance of the second (Serovo).
In order to shed light on the processes responsible for the hiatus, and to investigate older claims regarding Kitoi and Serovo lifeways, human skeletal remains from one Kitoi and one Serovo cemetery were analysed for patterns of demography and pathology. Results reveal that Kitoi and Serovo people enjoyed good community health. Demographic dynamics, however, appear to have differed between the two groups. Several lines of evidence indicate that Serovo society was probably growing, while the Kitoi were suffering stagnation or decline. Serovo men and women lived longer, probably less strenuous lives. The latter were present in relatively larger numbers and may have been nutritionally more advantaged than Kitoi females. The Serovo population probably thus gave birth to more children. Furthermore, weaning age may have been low and birth spacing short. In Kitoi society, children were rarer. Relatively fewer and possibly less healthy females may have given birth less often, and weaning age may have been higher and birth spacing longer than among the Serovo.
The hypothesis that Kitoi society was sexually more differentiated than Serovo is supported by this research. Other expressions of differentiation are not visible in the data sets employed here. The dissertation concludes with a new working hypothesis that states that Kitoi failure and Serovo success may be attributable to differences in cultural practices (weaning age, birth spacing and degree of sexual inequality).
