Uncontextualized sex-based analyses of stress and health provide simplistic, essentialized perspectives on trends among males and females in general, propagating the idea of a singular experience of "maleness" or "femaleness." A research design that incorporates multiple social units of analysis avoids essentialization of the experiences of men and women by providing a means of discovering the ways stress and growth might vary within each sex, related to social factors like status, kinship, and/or community/corporate membership. The research outlined here incorporates a traditional, sex-based perspective on growth patterns over the Late Woodland- Mississippian transition in West Central Illinois. However, detailed artifactual and spatial analyses of the Mississippian component of the Schild cemetery allows for further division of this portion of the sample into finer scale, socially meaningful units of analysis, which leads to a more engendered interpretation of biological patterns and contributes to reconstructions of gendered social identity. Linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) is used to isolate early childhood stress experiences, while femur length is used to assess cumulative growth, which continues into early adulthood. A less traditional method of growth assessment based on vertebral dimensions is also incorporated. Vertebral arch growth is complete by early childhood, and it has been hypothesized that neural canal diameter (NCD) can be used as indicator of early childhood growth corresponding roughly to the same period as LEH formation. Vertebral body height (VBH) increases until early adulthood, corresponding closely with the timing of femoral growth. Comparison between these four indicators provides a detailed account of growth experience as well as a new test of the vertebral method. Diachronic analysis assesses differences in male and female growth trends over the Late Woodland-Mississippian transition, while more detailed analysis of the Schild Mississippian materials allows for an assessment of the ways that male and female growth patterns vary by burial treatment based on artifact assemblages, body positioning, burial areas, and charnel association.Analysis of NCD suggest that the conditions of early childhood growth improved over the Late Woodland-Mississippian transition for females, while male growth patterns remained stable. Mississippian males experienced fewer LEH than their Late Woodland counterparts, with no corresponding change among females. Femur and VBH data indicate no change in cumulative growth patterns for either males or females over time. However, a closer examination of the Schild Mississippian component indicates intracemetery variation in these patterns among females, with those afforded certain burial treatments, those buried in particular areas, and those associated with charnel structures apparently experiencing better cumulative growth conditions than other females at the site. It is suggested that some women in the broader Schild Mississippian community experienced better biosocial circumstances of growth based on their association with certain status, kinship/community networks, and/or the timing of acculturation.
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