| Abstract: | The pubic scars of pregnancy and parturition as reported in the anthropological literature are a variant of the recognized clinical entity, osteitis pubis. The os pubis from 86 pre-Columbian and colonial Peruvian mummies were examined for this entity. Osteitis pubis was found in 13 pre-Columbian females (72.3%) and 19 colonial Indians (57.6%). Four of the colonial women were buried with newborn children and one had a four-month-old fetus in utero. This type of study has application in paleopathology and forensic medicine to show possible frequency of pregnancy in a population, but must be refined and quantitated to achieve any more than this. This study is of further interest as it demonstrates that racial groups have apparently a wide difference in frequency of this particular lesion of the pubic symphysis, a matter for further investigation. |
