What about the children? Incorporating osteological, archaeological, and ethnographic data to understand Sadlermiut childhood

Skeletal remains have long been used by physical anthropologists in order to understand the health and lives of past peoples. The purpose of this research is to better understand the lives of the Sadlermiut children from Native Point Southampton Island, Nunavut. To do so, a three-fold methodology integrating archaeological and ethnographic evidence of children and childhood with an osteological analysis of growth and development is utilized. This is the first study to concentrate on the skeletal remains of those less than 18 years of age from the Sadlermiut archaeological sample. This research suggests a high prevalence of infant mortality among the Sadlermiut, the largest proportion of which were female. The growth of the Sadlermiut is comparable to that of the Eskimo and Aleut from Alaska, yet less than that of modern children of European descent, and other Aboriginal archaeological populations from North America.