This research examined the relationship between social positions of both leadership and prestige and the biological status of two Ohio Hopewell skeletal collections from the Middle Woodland period (ca. 100 BC to 400 AD). Biological status was assessed through an analysis of skeletal markers of nonspecific systemic physiological stress, dietary nutritional stress, nonspecific infection and/or disease, or trauma to the skeletal system. The two skeletal samples used in this research are represented by 46 adults from the Turner Mound Group in the southwest region, and 91 adults from the Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Mounds, Raymond Ater Mound, Edwin Harness Mound, and Rockhold Mound in the south-central region. This study tested the validity of a proposed archaeological model derived from mortuary analysis for leadership and prestige in Ohio Hopewell society from a skeletal biology perspective. There were two main goals of this research: 1) To evaluate intraregional and interregional differences in the relationship between biological status and social status of male and female adults, and 2) To determine whether differences in biological status were related to differences in social status at prestigious burial mounds within the south-central region. The results of the intraregional analysis did not reveal statistically significant differences in biological status between males and females in each region. In contrast, the results of the interregional analysis revealed variation between the biological status of adults from the southwest region and the south-central region. This variation in biological status is consistent with differences detected between the two regions for material culture artifacts, the ideology of political economy, and the access of males and females to positions of leadership and prestige. However, there is little evidence that social status based on sex strongly influenced biological status within or between the two regions. Furthermore, there is no skeletal stress evidence to support the premise that differential access to food resources and nutrients was based on sex differences within or between the two regions. The results of analyses from within the south-central region revealed no statistically significant differences in the biological status of leaders buried in the most prestigious mound (i.e. Hopewell Mound 25) as compared to adults buried in the less prestigious south-central mounds. This study also contributes to our understanding of the relationship between differing levels of social status and skeletal stress in a complex egalitarian society. Differences in Ohio Hopewell social status, as indicated by mortuary analyses, were most likely based on achievement; however, based on the results of the current study, these differences were not dramatic enough during life, particularly in childhood, to have a measurable effect on an individual's biological status. The lack of statistically significant differences in biological status related to social status supports a model of Ohio Hopewell leadership and prestige primarily based on the achievement of social status.
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