(1) Background: contact between indigenous and European populations has often resulted in changes in oral health attributed to the introduction of sucrose. Most studies are per tooth over considerable periods and with few ethnological references. (2) Aim: dental epidemiology of 96 autochthonous frozen bodies from Yakutia between the early 17th century and the late 19th century; comparisons with historical texts and ethnographic data. (3) Material and methods: we use descriptive statistics and discriminant factorial analyses to identify dominant variables in the dataset and compare periods and subjects, considering all variables. (4) Results: the peculiarities of the population are the rarity of cavities and the relative frequency of dental pathologies leading to death. Assimilation into the Russian Orthodox culture has led to decreased tooth wear and an increase in tooth loss. Dental health evolves only two centuries after the contact. (5) Conclusions: the confrontation with historical data suggests that changes are not related to the growing importance of sucrose but to a combined action: the substitution of dendrophagy by cereal flour; the decrease in immunity linked to the development of chronic infectious diseases; tobacco addiction and the mandibular torus: a risk factor promoting apical cysts.

While recent advances in genetics make it possible to follow the genetic exchanges between populations and their phenotypic consequences, the impact of the genetic exchanges on the sensory perception of populations has yet to be explored. From this perspective, the present study investigated the consequences of African gene flow on odor perception in a Malagasy population with a predominantly East Asian genetic background. To this end, we combined psychophysical tests with genotype data of 235 individuals who were asked to smell the odorant molecule beta-ionone (βI). Results showed that in this population the ancestry of the OR5A1 gene significantly influences the ability to detect βI. At the individual level, African ancestry significantly protects against specific anosmia/hyposmia due to the higher frequency of the functional gene (OR ratios = 14, CI: 1.8–110, p-value = 0.012). At the population level, African introgression decreased the prevalence of specific anosmia/hyposmia to this odorous compound. Taken together, these findings validate the conjecture that in addition to cultural exchanges, genetic transfer may also influence the sensory perception of the population in contact.

Au cours des deux dernières campagnes de fouilles du projet MAFMAD, 8 grottes sépulcrales ont pu être fouillées dans la région côtière du Nord-Ouest de Madagascar proche de la baie de Narinda. Leur datation est en cours de clarification ; toutefois, les études bibliographiques et les premières datations radiocarbones indiquent une datation autour des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles. Ces grottes ont, par ailleurs, livré un échantillon d’une quarantaine de sujets (adultes et immatures) et un très grand...

Les études ethnologiques et anthropologiques menées à Madagascar ont fait de cette île un point d’intérêt majeur pour l’étude des sépultures collectives, notamment en raison du famadihana, un rituel qui consiste à sortir régulièrement les corps des tombeaux collectifs avant leur réinhumation. Bien que ces cérémonies aient été décrites par plusieurs observateurs (anthropologues, historiens, folkloristes, …) aucune approche archéothanatologique de tombeau collectif n’a encore été réalisée. L’or...