The following are the review questions for the article Reading the Bones of La Florida from Scientific American, June 2000

1. What is Bioarcheology and what types of information does it provide?

2. Since written records are contradictory and plant material decays so easily, archeologists studied the bones of Florida and Georgian indians. What specifically did they look for?

3. What kind of information was inferred from studying the isotopic chemistry of bones?

4. Why does this information imply changes in the amount of corn consumed?

5. Is this good or bad? Why?

6. What are five negative health related aspects of a high corn diet?

7. Archeologists studying teeth discovered four disturbing trends found in missionary indians not seen in pre-contact indians. Describe these.

8. Examination of teeth imply contamination of food and water may have influenced health in early childhood. What evidence supports this belief?

9. Why might poor diet and infection cause anemia? What evidence from missionary Indian remains indicate they may have been anemic?

10. Examining bones of the axial skeleton suggest a rise in osteoarthritis in mission indians. What is the probable cause for this rise?

11. What other evidence from bones supports this hypothesis?

12. Why did this structural change (from #11) to bones occur?

13. What skeletal finds show that the high corn diet of mission indians, compared to pre-contact Indian remains, was deleterious to their health?