2 results
6 - (Re)Discovering Paleopathology
- from Part II - (Re)Discovery of Evidence
- Edited by Cathy Willermet, Central Michigan University, Sang-Hee Lee, University of California, Riverside
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- Book:
- Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology
- Published online:
- 01 November 2019
- Print publication:
- 14 November 2019, pp 103-125
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- Chapter
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Summary
The past decade has been a time of significant growth in paleopathology, and also a time of transition in the relationship between paleopathology – “the investigation of diseases and related conditions in skeletal and soft tissue remains” (Paleopathology Association 2018) – and the broader field of bioarchaeology – the “integrative, contextualized study of human skeletal remains derived from archaeological settings” (Larsen 2018:865). These trends are driving a real florescence in paleopathology as this work, which starts from the study of individual bones, finds an integral role in larger-scale contextualized explorations of life in the past (Buzon 2012; Grauer 2018a, 2018b). In this chapter, we review the underpinnings of the enhanced articulation of paleopathology and bioarchaeology, especially in regard to studies of disability and care. We address the difficulties attendant to discussions of disability that stem from the epistemologies and semantics of disability studies and the cross-cultural (and temporal) differences in the experience of illness, the perceived sources of illness, and attitudes toward the ill or disabled. These are significant issues in contemporary society and global epidemiology, as well as in the interpretation of pathologies identified in skeletal and soft tissue remains. Returning to the role of paleopathology, we review current approaches to quantifying impairment and interpreting disability in the bioarchaeological record, highlighting the role of interpreting evidence for the provision (and withholding) of care – care of the very young and the very old, of the ill and disabled, and care of the dead – as a bridge between paleopathology and the broader studies that represent significant developments in bioarchaeology.
16 - Cultural Longevity and Biological Stress in the American Southwest
- Edited by Richard H. Steckel, Ohio State University, Jerome C. Rose, University of Arkansas
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- Book:
- The Backbone of History
- Published online:
- 01 March 2010
- Print publication:
- 26 August 2002, pp 481-505
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Summary
ABSTRACT
A wealth of data exists for the American Southwest on diet, health, settlement, and other aspects of life in the precolonial and colonial periods. TheWestern Hemisphere project provided a way to begin to synthesize these data on a regional and comparative scale. The health index, as the average of the quality-adjusted life-years lived by a group (that is, the combined effects of morbidity and mortality), demonstrates that individuals in the Southwest carried a morbidity burden higher than most of the other areas discussed in this volume. Mortality is high and morbidity is ubiquitous. The combination of these two related processes resulted in a health index score of 16.5/26.4 or 62.5%. The mean age at death of approximately 24 years suggests that Southwest groups were on the lower end of the mortality spectrum. Comparison of comparable data sets provides a dimension of analysis in the Southwest not previously possible, and as such, presents important additional information for the interpretation of health in the American Southwest.
INTRODUCTION
In pre–Columbian times, the Greater Southwest was a biogeographically, culturally, and politically complex area incorporating Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah and Colorado in the United States, as well as all the states of northern Mexico, including Chihuahua, Sonora, and Durango. It was then, and continues to be, a cultural, political, and economically diverse area where contact, trade, and boundary maintenance and dispute define local and regional interactions.
The Southwest is also a place where semiarid desert landscapes abound. Water is at a premium, and arable land is a limited resource.
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