Embodying identity: Tooth ablation and agricultural mobility in prehistoric China within a broader Asian context

Deliberately patterned tooth ablation provides visible archaeological evidence for regulated sociocultural behavior. Widespread across East Asia, with varying combinations of the intentionally removed teeth from the Neolithic onward, the practice endured there for more than six millennia and, in some regions, persisted into the 1930s. Drawing on a newly compiled dataset of 66 sites in China and a broader comparative framework of over 100 sites across East and Southeast Asia, this study investigates the origins, distribution, and cultural significance of deliberately patterned tooth ablation in this region. The available evidence suggests that this cultural practice became closely associated with early agricultural communities in China and may have subsequently emerged in Southeast Asia alongside farming population dispersals, developing recurrent patterns that physically marked cultural affiliations and group boundaries.