[Sca-cooks] Re: Rhachitis

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 12:20 AM 8/26/02 -0400, you wrote:
>     What would a "flat, rhachitic pelvis" be then???
>     I am wondering about a flat rhachitic pelvis because that is how a
>female skeleton was described who is wearing one of the many-gored
>dresses recovered in Herjolfsnes, Greenland.  Her dress from the back
>flares out and down--not what I would associate with flat.

A female pelvis is rather like a cradle- there is depth back-to-front and
the internal dimensions create mor of an ovoid passage, basically to allow
a child's head through. A male pelvis is a little flatter back-to-front,
and rather V-shaped. Pelvis structure is one of the easiest ways to
identify the gender of a body, for instance. Also, if you watch the walk of
someone who you are a little unsure about, you can usually peg it- the
pelvic girdle creates a different angle for the hip sockets, and the leg
motion is different.

At any rate, a rachitic pelvis is malformed, and rickets is usually the
culprit. Instead of the depth back-to-front, the pelvis is flatter, and the
opening is squashed- shaped a lot like a kidney bean instead of an oval. A
female with the rachitic pelvis cannot give birth naturally and has to have
a c-section *if* she can carry to term. Fact is, someone with that pelvis
is likely to have other major problems.

A number of the Greenland finds indicate serious bone malformations,
including drawfism. It's been awhile since I read the work on them, but
they are one of the reasons why I am very hesitant to use those gowns as
exemplum for other 14th century gowns, such as the classic cotehardie. (As
for the flare, that has more to do with the fat carried in the buttocks
than the pelvis underneath it.) It also (OFC) would seem to indicate some
problems with basic nutritive value in the diets of the Europeans who went
to Greenland and/or an exaggerated level of genetically related health
problems.

Does this help with your question?

'Lainie
dusting off a corner of my brain I haven't been in for awhile...
___________________________________________________________________________
"If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce it tastes much more
like prunes than rhubarb does." Groucho Marx, _Animal Crackers_