About My Research

I’m a student at Ohio State University working on my doctorate in anthropology.

Basically, I study how a mother’s nutrition during her pregnancy and an infant’s nutrition during early life are related to development of the baby teeth, especially when these teeth erupt into the mouth. I am also working to understand why moms decide to stop breastfeeding and to introduce other liquids and foods to their infants – is it because of the infant’s growth or development, cultural ideas about health, the presence of teeth, or something else? Today, a baby’s teeth aren’t as important as they would have been in the past when a child would need to be independent from its mother by being able to process food on its own. However, understanding how teeth develop and  why moms wean their children today may help us understand our early ancestors and past relatives.

Teeth begin to form in utero, or when a person is still a fetus, and they continue forming and erupting until we’re adults. Because of this time frame, teeth can sometimes tell us about the “life history” of an individual – where we lived, what we ate, when we were born, how old we were when we died. Enamel, the covering of the tooth, is the hardest organic substance on earth – much harder than bone. This means that we often find teeth in archaeological or paleontological contexts when other tissues might not survive.

More soon about where I’m researching . . . and some pictures!

The tide was coming in so we had to clear out of Muinmuin