The carbon and nitrogen stable isotopic composition of the scalp hair and diet of Gidra-speaking people in four villages in Papua New Guinea is presented. The isotopic composition of hair was measured, while that of the diet was estimated from food consumption survey data and the measured isotopic composition and protein and carbohydrate contents of food items. The average isotopic ratios of the hair samples and of the diet varied among the four study villages, which were selected because of their diverse ecological settings. Comparison was made between hair and calculated dietary isotopic compositions. Two of the four diet-hair enrichment values obtained for I3C (+1.8 and 2.2%0) were similar to those previously reported (1.4-2.0%0), but the other two values (3.7 and 4.8%0) were greater than in earlier reports. I5N enrichment was systematically greater (by 1%0) than reported values (-4.3%0) except for one village, where a much greater enrichment (6.9%0) was found. The factors potentially relevant to these deviations are discussed. Possible errors in estimating the dietary isotopic composition and minor modifications of dietary habits revealed by food consumption surveys could explain most of the discrepancies. However, the great enrichment of 15N found in one of the villages remains unexplained. o 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis of excavated human bone collagen has become a method for obtaining quantitative information on past diets-for example, relative dependence on C3 and C4 plants and on marine and terrestrial products (van der Merwe and Vogel, 1978;Bender et al., 1981;Tauber, 1981;Chisholm et al., 1982). No other methods can provide such information. However, the validity of the past dietary composition reconstructed from isotopic data has not been fully evaluated because of the lack of alternative methods for confirming past dietary composition. One possi-ble and promising approach to the validation of isotopic dietary analysis is to analyze tissue samples from a contemporary human population and compare the dietary composition revealed by isotopic analysis and other method(s).
Hair may be the most suitable tissue in this regard; it is a tissue which can be ob-