There is evidence that malnutrition during childhood causes systematic dental hypoplasias or deformities of particular kinds. This is still controversial, because some scientists argue that such hypoplasias are, or can be, the result of heredity, and are "naturally" occurring in different populations. This study will establish the rates of dental hypoplasias in a large series of living individuals who were children during one of the worst and most widespread famines of human memory - in China from 1959-1961. In an examination of over 2,000 individuals in a rural and urban community, it will establish what the changing rates of hypoplasias were before, during, and after the famine, what the distinctions between urban and rural populations were, and whether sex differences in effects are apparent. As the graduate student involved in the project was a "barefoot doctor" in both these areas, access to the populations is assured. This study will be very important in establishing baseline data for bioarchaeological reconstructions of human nutrition in past populations, and for nutritional surveys in underdeveloped countries with poor records.
