Bioarchaeology and Social Theory - Böcker

Day-to-day activities are important in the development of social identities, the establishment of social standing, and the communal understanding of societal rules. This perspective is broadly referred to as practice theory and relates to the power of an overarching social structure and the individual actors that exist within it. Practice theory has made an important contribution to anthropological and archaeological research as these fields are particularly interested in daily life and the importance of these actions.This volume argues that practice theory can also be used in a bioarchaeological context through the examination of human skeletal remains and the archaeological context in which they were excavated. Bioarchaeology offers a unique perspective on these day-to-day experiences—skeletal tissue is constantly undergoing a process of change and, as a living biological system, it can adapt to external forces. Furthermore, bioarchaeological studies are multi-scalar and can examine individuals, groups, or entire populations.Using osteological indicators of activity patterns (entheseal changes, osteoarthritis) and dietary isotopes (carbon, nitrogen) as examples, this book addresses patterns of everyday life in the ancient past. Physical activities and food consumption are actions that are carried out on a daily basis. While bioarchaeology does not have the ability to recreate specific day-to-day activities, we can assess broad trends in everyday life.  The volume illustrates these points using examples from the Ancient Nile Valley. Through the examination of over 800 Egyptian and Nubian individuals from five different archaeological sites, the research addresses patterns of everyday life as they relate to social inequality, agency, and practice.Beyond osteological indicators of activity and dietary patterns, this book also discusses additional methods that can be pursed to draw attention to daily life. Lastly, this book also highlights the applicability of and potential contribution that practice theory can make to this area of research.

This book examines how the shifts in the early 19th century in New York City affected children in particular. What emerges are life histories of children—of infants, toddlers, younger children, older children, and adolescents—during this time of transition in New York City.

Bioarchaeologists who study human remains in ancient, historic and contemporary settings are securely anchored within anthropology as anthropologists, yet they have not taken on the pundits the way other subdisciplines within anthropology have.

This is particularly topical because there is a burgeoning awareness within anthropology regarding the centrality of mother-infant interactions for understanding the evolution of our species, infant and maternal health and care strategies, epigenetic change, and biological and social development.

This is particularly topical because there is a burgeoning awareness within anthropology regarding the centrality of mother-infant interactions for understanding the evolution of our species, infant and maternal health and care strategies, epigenetic change, and biological and social development.

Pain is an evolutionary and adaptive mechanism to prevent harm to an individual. Beyond this, how it is defined, expressed, and borne is dictated culturally. Thus, the study of pain requires a holistic approach crossing cultures, disciplines, and time. This volume explores how and why pain-inducing behaviors are selected, including their potential to demonstrate individuality, navigate social hierarchies, and express commitment to an ideal. It also explores how power dynamics affect individual choice, at times requiring self-induced suffering.Taking bioanthropological and bioarchaeological approaches, this volume focuses on those who purposefully seek pain to show that, while often viewed as “exotic,” the pervasiveness of pain-inducing practices is more normative than expected. Theory and practice are employed to re-conceptualize pain as a strategic path towards achieving broader individual and societal goals. Past and present motivations for self-inflicted pain, its socio-political repercussions, and the physical manifestations of repetitive or long-term pain inducing behaviors are examined. Chapters span geographic and temporal boundaries and a wide variety of activities to illustrate how purposeful pain is used by individuals for personal expression and manipulated by political powers to maintain the status quo.This volume reveals how bioarchaeology illuminates paleopathology, how social theory enhances bioarchaeology, and how ethnography benefits from a longer temporal perspective.

Pain is an evolutionary and adaptive mechanism to prevent harm to an individual. Beyond this, how it is defined, expressed, and borne is dictated culturally. Thus, the study of pain requires a holistic approach crossing cultures, disciplines, and time. This volume explores how and why pain-inducing behaviors are selected, including their potential to demonstrate individuality, navigate social hierarchies, and express commitment to an ideal. It also explores how power dynamics affect individual choice, at times requiring self-induced suffering.Taking bioanthropological and bioarchaeological approaches, this volume focuses on those who purposefully seek pain to show that, while often viewed as “exotic,” the pervasiveness of pain-inducing practices is more normative than expected. Theory and practice are employed to re-conceptualize pain as a strategic path towards achieving broader individual and societal goals. Past and present motivations for self-inflicted pain, its socio-political repercussions, and the physical manifestations of repetitive or long-term pain inducing behaviors are examined. Chapters span geographic and temporal boundaries and a wide variety of activities to illustrate how purposeful pain is used by individuals for personal expression and manipulated by political powers to maintain the status quo.This volume reveals how bioarchaeology illuminates paleopathology, how social theory enhances bioarchaeology, and how ethnography benefits from a longer temporal perspective.

This book synthesizes in-depth bioarchaeological research into diet, subsistence regimes, and nutrition—and corresponding insights into adaptation, suffering, and resilience—among indigenous north-coastal Peruvian communities from early agricultural through European colonial periods.The Spanish invasion and colonization of Andean South America left millions dead, landscapes transformed, and traditional ways of life annihilated. However, the nature and magnitude of these changes were far from uniform. By the time the Spanish arrived, over four millennia of complex societies had emerged and fallen, and in the 16th century, the region was home to the largest and most expansive indigenous empire in the western hemisphere.Decades of Andean archaeological and ethnohistorical research have explored the incredible sophistication of regional agropastoral traditions, the importance of food and feasting as mechanisms of control, and the significance of maritime economies in the consolidation of complex polities. Bioarchaeology is particularly useful in studying these processes. Beyond identifying what resources were available and how they were prepared, bioarchaeological methods provide unique opportunities and humanized perspectives to reconstruct what individuals actually ate, and whether their diets changed within their own lifespans.

This book synthesizes in-depth bioarchaeological research into diet, subsistence regimes, and nutrition—and corresponding insights into adaptation, suffering, and resilience—among indigenous north-coastal Peruvian communities from early agricultural through European colonial periods.The Spanish invasion and colonization of Andean South America left millions dead, landscapes transformed, and traditional ways of life annihilated. However, the nature and magnitude of these changes were far from uniform. By the time the Spanish arrived, over four millennia of complex societies had emerged and fallen, and in the 16th century, the region was home to the largest and most expansive indigenous empire in the western hemisphere.Decades of Andean archaeological and ethnohistorical research have explored the incredible sophistication of regional agropastoral traditions, the importance of food and feasting as mechanisms of control, and the significance of maritime economies in the consolidation of complex polities. Bioarchaeology is particularly useful in studying these processes. Beyond identifying what resources were available and how they were prepared, bioarchaeological methods provide unique opportunities and humanized perspectives to reconstruct what individuals actually ate, and whether their diets changed within their own lifespans.

This volume is a resource for bioarchaeologists interested in using a structural violence framework to better understand and contextualize the lived experiences of past populations.

This volume is a resource for bioarchaeologists interested in using a structural violence framework to better understand and contextualize the lived experiences of past populations.

Studies of contemporary urbanization have found both positive and negative outcomes, which likely have parallels in past human societies.This volume is unique as there is no current bioarchaeological book addressing urbanization, despite various studies of urbanization having been conducted.

Studies of contemporary urbanization have found both positive and negative outcomes, which likely have parallels in past human societies.This volume is unique as there is no current bioarchaeological book addressing urbanization, despite various studies of urbanization having been conducted.

These concepts can deepen study of plasticity, disease, gender, violence, and race and ethnicity, as well as advance the field’s decolonization efforts.This book also works to overcome the challenges presented by dense social theorizing, which has paid little attention to real bodies.

Drawing from a variety of disciplines such as archaeology, bioarchaeology, literary studies, ancient Egyptian philology, and sociocultural anthropology, this volume provides an interdisciplinary account of the ways in which the dead are able to transcend temporal distances and engender social relationships.

Drawing from a variety of disciplines such as archaeology, bioarchaeology, literary studies, ancient Egyptian philology, and sociocultural anthropology, this volume provides an interdisciplinary account of the ways in which the dead are able to transcend temporal distances and engender social relationships.

This volume explores violence in bioarchaeological case studies from various cultures, geographic regions, and time periods throughout the Eastern Hemisphere through the lens of Neil Whitehead's concept of poetics. It emphasizes the role and power of performance and ritual in violent acts, and how different types of violence are used within societies. Whitehead’s poetics of violence model has primarily been applied to Western Hemisphere assemblages and indigenous groups, and this is the first volume dedicated to the application of this theoretical model to Europe, Asia, and Africa.Developed from a symposium organized at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists annual meeting in 2018, this volume keeps a tight focus on the direct link between physical evidence for violence in human remains and the contextualized interpretations of how that violence may have functioned within an individual’s society. This type of theoretical interpretation, which treats violence as ameaningful act firmly embedded within its cultural context, rather than as an aberration, is rarely applied to archaeological assemblages and human remains from the Eastern Hemisphere. This is the first volume to offer direct physical evidence for how violence was enacted and understood within different societies in the past. This volume aims to make these rigorous theoretical studies available to students and professionals in archaeology, anthropology, and bioarchaeology, and to provide a model for other researchers to interpret evidence of violence in human remains from archaeological contexts.

This volume explores violence in bioarchaeological case studies from various cultures, geographic regions, and time periods throughout the Eastern Hemisphere through the lens of Neil Whitehead's concept of poetics. It emphasizes the role and power of performance and ritual in violent acts, and how different types of violence are used within societies. Whitehead’s poetics of violence model has primarily been applied to Western Hemisphere assemblages and indigenous groups, and this is the first volume dedicated to the application of this theoretical model to Europe, Asia, and Africa.Developed from a symposium organized at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists annual meeting in 2018, this volume keeps a tight focus on the direct link between physical evidence for violence in human remains and the contextualized interpretations of how that violence may have functioned within an individual’s society. This type of theoretical interpretation, which treats violence as ameaningful act firmly embedded within its cultural context, rather than as an aberration, is rarely applied to archaeological assemblages and human remains from the Eastern Hemisphere. This is the first volume to offer direct physical evidence for how violence was enacted and understood within different societies in the past. This volume aims to make these rigorous theoretical studies available to students and professionals in archaeology, anthropology, and bioarchaeology, and to provide a model for other researchers to interpret evidence of violence in human remains from archaeological contexts.

This volume introduces the place of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo in our understanding of Southwestern Archaeology in the Northern Rio Grande. Schwartz. The volume offers a close read of the mortuary evidence at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo and integrates ideas about corn as a central feature of Tewa cosmology with this crop as the paramount dietary staple.

This volume introduces the place of Arroyo Hondo Pueblo in our understanding of Southwestern Archaeology in the Northern Rio Grande. Schwartz. The volume offers a close read of the mortuary evidence at Arroyo Hondo Pueblo and integrates ideas about corn as a central feature of Tewa cosmology with this crop as the paramount dietary staple.

This book examines the intricate relationships between the living and the dead, revealing how these interactions shape group identities and facilitate ongoing negotiations of self and community. Beginning with a rich exploration of bioarchaeological theories, this volume introduces an enriched Poetics model, which deepens our understanding of not just skeletal remains, but the broader contexts that imbue bodies with social significance and how those bodies in turn can produce socially significant changes.By emphasizing the roles of performance and ritual, the work illustrates how the dead serve as powerful tools in the creation and maintenance of social structures. Through compelling case studies of ancient and modern mortuary practices, it highlights the changing meanings of the body across different historical and cultural landscapes. The volume demonstrates that while our interpretations may shift, the body remains a profound source of meaning and identity. By analyzing patterns of modification and representation, this book provides invaluable insights into social change and how group identity is forged.

This is the first book to address theory and practice in Applied Bioarchaeology—a term used to describe bioarchaeological research which addresses matters of relevance today, and which actively engages people in the research process in ways that are respectful and relevant to the studied population, their communities, and their descendants. This book provides examples of best practice; identifies challenges and opportunities for developing the field of Applied Bioarchaeology; and illustrates the role of bioarchaeology in effecting change through advocacy and activism.The book is divided into four parts. The first part, ‘Using Past Experience to Inform Modern Behaviour and Health’, demonstrates how bioarchaeology has the potential to contribute towards better appreciation of the diverse factors that influence behaviour and health, and how this information can shape, inform, and empower future decision-making, from individuals to wider health policies. The second part, ‘Developing Community-Led Research’, focuses on developing active community engagement in bioarchaeological research, with chapters arguing for community-led research designed to empower a wide range of peoples that have been marginalized (or even ignored) in traditional archaeological practice. The third part, ‘Bioarchaeology and the Arts’, illustrates how Applied Bioarchaeology is enhanced by cross-disciplinary teamwork, and how the arts can be used to create safe spaces to explore difficult issues, to aid us in critically reflecting on our practices, to interrogate gaps in knowledge, and to develop new ideas and ways of thinking, learning, and creating knowledge. The final part, ‘A Way Forward’, is a personal reflection written by Lorna Tilley, which argues the case for developing the field of Applied Bioarchaeology and suggests some possible approaches for achieving this goal.

This open access volume is the first dedicated to action within bioarchaeology and cognate disciplines, with the aim of fostering social and political change. The editors bring together a diverse range of bioarchaeologists and related practitioners whose work engages with some of the most pressing social issues facing humanity today, including infectious disease, structural violence, healthcare and inequitable access to resources, racial injustice, ethics, food insecurity, displacement, equitable education, and the intersections of these challenges with identities such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and disability. These issues explored in this volume are at the heart of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted in 2015, and encapsulated in the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals. Each chapter makes explicit connections to contemporary issues and demonstrates how our work can be used to effect social change, offering practical steps for developing an activist lens in research, practice, and academia. This volume will be of interest to academics, practitioners, and students in bioarchaeology and related disciplines.

This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to, and explanation of, the theory and practice of the ‘bioarchaeology of care’, an original, fully theorised and contextualised case study-based approach designed to identify and interpret cases of care provision in prehistory.  The applied methodology comprises four stages of analysis, each building on the content of the preceding one(s), which provide the framework for this process.  Theory and Practice in the Bioarchaeology of Care is the primary source of information on this new approach and serves as a manual for its implementation. It elaborates the foundations on which the bioarchaeology of care is constructed; it leads the reader through the methodology; and it provides three detailed examples of prehistoric caregiving which illustrate how bioarchaeology of care analysis has the capacity to reveal aspects of past group and individual identity and lifeways which might otherwise have remained unknown.

This volume centers on the application of social theory to commingled remains with special focus on the cultural processes that create the assemblages as a way to better understand issues of meaning, social structure and interaction, and lived experience in the past. The importance of the application of theoretical frameworks to bioarchaeology in general has been recognized, but commingled and fragmentary assemblages require an increased theoretical focus. Too often these assemblages are still relegated to appendices; they are analytical puzzles that need the interpretive power offered by social theory.Theoretical Approaches to Analysis and Interpretation of Commingled Human Remains provides case studies that illustrate how an appropriate theoretical model can be used with commingled and fragmentary remains to add to overall site and population level interpretations of past and present peoples. Specifically, the contributions show a blending and melding of different social theories, highlighting the broad interpretive power of social theory. Contributors are drawn from both the Old and New World. Temporally, time periods from the Neolithic to historic periods are present, further widening the audience for the volume.

Encountering evidence of postmortem examinations - dissection or autopsy in historic skeletal collections is relatively rare, but recently there has been an increase in the number of reported instances. And much of what has been evaluated has been largely descriptive and historical. The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy brings together in a single volume the skeletal evidence of postmortem examination in the United States. Ranging from the early colonial period to the early 1900’s, from a coffeehouse at Colonial Williamsburg to a Quaker burial vault in lower Manhattan, the contributions to this volume demonstrate the interpretive significance of a historically and theoretically contextualized bioarchaeology. The authors employ a wide range of perspectives, demonstrating how bioarchaeological evidence can be used to address a wide range of themes including social identity and marginalization, racialization, the nature of the body and fragmentation, and the emergence of medical practice and authority in the United States.​

This book explores how individuals, social groups, and entire populations are impacted by the tumultuous collapse of ancient states and empires. Through meticulous study of the bones of the dead and the molecules embedded therein, bioarchaeologists can reconstruct how the reverberations of traumatic social disasters permanently impact human bodies over the course of generations. In this case, we focus on the enigmatic civilizations of ancient Peru. Around 1000 years ago, the Wari Empire, the first expansive, imperial state in the highland Andes, abruptly collapsed after four centures of domination. Several hundred years later, the Inca rose to power, creating a new highland empire running along the spine of South America. But what happened in between? According to Andean folklore, two important societies, known today as the Chanka and the Quichua, emerged from the ashes of the ruined Wari state, and coalesced as formidable polities despite the social, political, and economic chaos that characterized the end of imperial control. The period of the Chanka and the Quichua, however, produced no known grand capital, no large, elaborate cities, no written or commercial records, and left relatively little by way of tools, goods, and artwork. Knowledge of the Chanka and Quichua who thrived in the Andahuaylas region of south-central Peru, ca. 1000 – 1400 A.D., is mainly written in bone—found largely in the human remains and associated funerary objects of its population. This book presents novel insights as to the nature of society during this important interstitial era between empires—what specialists call the “Late Intermediate Period” in Andean pre-history. Additionally, it provides a detailed study of Wari state collapse, explores how imperial fragmentation impacted local people in Andahuaylas, and addresses how those people reorganized their society after this traumatic disruption. Particular attention is given to describing how Wari collapse impactedrates and types of violence, altered population demographic profiles, changed dietary habits, prompted new patterns of migration, generated novel ethnic identities, prompted innovative technological advances, and transformed beliefs and practices concerning the dead.

This book provides the first comprehensive introduction to, and explanation of, the theory and practice of the ‘bioarchaeology of care’, an original, fully theorised and contextualised case study-based approach designed to identify and interpret cases of care provision in prehistory.

This volume centers on the application of social theory to commingled remains with special focus on the cultural processes that create the assemblages as a way to better understand issues of meaning, social structure and interaction, and lived experience in the past.