Differential Phenotypic Variability Among the Apalachee Mission Populations of La Florida: A Diachronic Perspective Christopher M. Stojanowski* Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306 KEY WORDS La Florida missions; dental variability; European contact; microevolution ABSTRACT Phenotypic variability is evaluated in a series of skeletal samples from the Apalachee region of Florida. Based on ethnohistoric evidence, several predic- tive models for changes in variability are generated. If variability decreases through time, this likely represents the effect of genetic drift in populations experiencing epi- demic disease and population loss. If variability increases through time, this suggests that population aggregation or genetic admixture were primary factors shaping the Apalachee population during the mission period. Dental dimensions were collected from a series of precontact (pre- 1500), early mission (AD 1633–1650) (San Pedro y San Pablo de Patale), and late mission (post-1657) (San Luis) samples from the Apalachee region and were subjected to univariate and multivariate variability analyses. The re- sults indicate that the late mission San Luis sample was significantly more variable than the Patale or precontact samples; however, the Patale sample exhibited no signif- icant variability change in comparison to the precontact population. This suggests that the missions initially ef- fected limited change in genetic variability in the mission populations. However, San Luis was affected by either admixture or population aggregation to such a degree that the observed variation had increased beyond earlier lev- els. Given the limited historic evidence for population aggregation at this mission, and the comparatively large resident Spanish population, the increased variability may be indicative of admixture at this mission, and po- tentially at this mission only. Based on a limited data set, however, it appears that the mission period cannot be typified by a single evolutionary or historic process. Am J Phys Anthropol 120:352–363, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Previous bioanthropological work on the mission populations of Spanish colonial Florida (La Florida) focused on health, disease, diet, and mobility, with a majority of this research being directed toward the Guale Indians of the Georgia coast (reviewed in Larsen, 1993, 2001). A series of publications docu- mented a general decline in quality of life during the mission period. This is evidenced by a declining birth rate (Larsen et al., 2001), an increased fre- quency and severity of hypoplastic defects (Hutchin- son, 1986; Hutchinson and Larsen, 1988, 1990; Simpson et al., 1990), an increased frequency of periosteal infections and anemic indicators (Larsen and Harn, 1994; Larsen and Sering, 2000), an in- crease in caries frequency (Larsen et al., 1991) con- comitant with the intensification of maize consump- tion (Hutchinson et al., 1998, 2000; Larsen et al., 1991; Schoeninger et al., 1990), and a general de- cline in activity levels (Larsen and Ruff, 1994; Ruff and Larsen, 1990). Unfortunately, the poor preservation of the Apala- chee skeletal materials precluded intensive study of the bioarchaeological data, however, many workers have included Apalachee samples in their broadly defined research agendas (Larsen et al., 2001; Hutchinson and Larsen, 2001; Simpson, 2001; Sto- rey, 1986). As with much of the Guale research, all of these studies focused on defining temporal and re- gional patterns of health and disease in the late prehistoric and historic periods. For example, Storey (1986) analyzed trends in stress indicators (hypo- plastic defects and nonspecific bone infections) in the Lake Jackson and Patale samples, and con- cluded that mission period populations experienced a more healthful existence. This is at odds, however, with findings by Simpson (2001) that the Apalachee mission samples exhibited higher frequencies of pathological striae of Retzius in comparison to other mission groups and the precontact Lake Jackson sample. Dietary analyses indicate an increase in Grant sponsor: Wenner-Gren Foundation; Grant number: GR-6698; Grant sponsor: Sigma Xi; Grant sponsor: Student Research Allocation Committee, University of New Mexico; Grant sponsor: Research, Project and Travel Grants, University of New Mexico. *Correspondence to: Christopher M. Stojanowski, Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306. E-mail: cstoj1@cs.com Received 1 February 2002; accepted 19 June 2002. DOI 10.1002/ajpa.10157 Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley. com). AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 120:352–363 (2003) © 2003 WILEY-LISS, INC.