kchoover14/hadza-market-integration
Childhood developmental stress across 62 years in bush-living Hadza hunter-gatherers reveals sex-based health trends linked to remote market integration.
Hadza Childhood Health and Remote Market Integration
Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) -- permanent dental defects formed during early childhood -- were assessed in 81 bush-living Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania to examine long-term trends in developmental stress across a 62-year birth cohort. A linear mixed-effects model and Bayesian confirmation (brms) identified a significant interaction between birth year and sex: male hypoplasia rates declined 71% after 1975 while female rates remained flat. The 1975 turning point coincides with the onset of remote market integration -- researchers and tourists bringing goods and currency to bush camps -- and a bibliometric analysis of published Hadza research reveals decades of external bias toward men's activities that may have driven the disparity.
Published Paper
Berbesque, J. C., & Hoover, K. C. (2025). Market Integration Improves Traditional Hadza Male Childhood Health with no Effect on Females. The Journal of Development Studies, 1--18. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2025.2555188
Repository Contents
This repo contains two sets of files. All files prefixed revised- are revised scripts and figures from the original publication. Revisions offer a fully reproducible end-to-end pipeline from raw data through ETL to results — including, when needed, data cleaning and wrangling scripts (revised from originals or created where none existed), code modernization, and the addition of environment management to future-proof the revised scripts. All other files are associated with the original publication. Occasionally, an original script may be updated with annotations for clarity; the commit history will note any such changes.
Portfolio Page
The portfolio page includes a full project narrative, key findings, and figures.
Tools & Technologies
Languages: R | Python
Tools: RStudio | Jupyter
Packages: lme4 | lmerTest | effectsize | effects | MuMIn | brms | bayesplot | ggplot2 | cowplot | dplyr | psych | car | lattice | bibliometrix | readxl | janitor | NetworkX | matplotlib
Expertise
Applying bioarchaeological methods to living populations to reconstruct long-term health histories; triangulating findings across frequentist, Bayesian, and bibliometric approaches; ethical data stewardship in research with indigenous communities.
License
- Code and scripts are licensed under the MIT License.
- Data, figures, and written content © Kara C. Hoover, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.