Download or read book Bioarchaeology of Pre Columbian Mesoamerica written by Cathy Willermet and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a novel interdisciplinary view of the migration, mobility, ethnicity, and social identities of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples. In studies that combine bioarchaeology, ethnohistory, isotope data, and dental morphology, contributors demonstrate the challenges and rewards of such integrative work when applied to large regional questions of population history. The essays in this volume are the results of fieldwork in Honduras, Belize, and a variety of sites in Mexico. One chapter uses dental health data and burial rituals to investigate the social status of sacrificial victims during the Late Classic period. Another analyzes skeletal remains from multiple research perspectives to explore the immigrant makeup of the multiethnic city of Copan. Contributors also use strontium and oxygen isotope data from tooth enamel and dental morphological traits to test hypotheses about migration, and they incorporate ethnohistorical sources in an examination of ancient Maya understandings of belonging and otherness. Revealing how complementary fields of study can together create a better understanding of the complex forces that impact population movements, this volume provides an inspiring picture of the exciting collaborative work currently under way among researchers in the region. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Download or read book The Bioarchaeology of Artificial Cranial Modifications written by Vera Tiesler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-10-16 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The artificial shaping of the skull vault of infants expresses fundamental aspects of crafted beauty, of identity, status and gender in a way no other body practice does. Combining different sources of information, this volume contributes new interpretations on Mesoamerican head shaping traditions. Here, the head with its outer insignia was commonly used as a metaphor for designating the “self” and personhood and, as part of the body, served as a model for the indigenous universe. Analogously, the outer “looks” of the head and its anatomical constituents epitomized deeply embedded worldviews and longstanding traditions. It is in this sense that this book explores both the quotidian roles and long-standing ideological connotations of cultural head modifications in Mesoamerica and beyond, setting new standards in the discussion of the scope, caveats, and future directions involved in this study. The systematic examination of Mesoamerican skeletal series fosters an explained review of indigenous cultural history through the lens of emblematic head models with their nuanced undercurrents of religious identity and ethnicity, social organization and dynamic cultural shift. The embodied expressions of change are explored in different geocultural settings and epochs, being most visible in the centuries surrounding the Maya collapse and following the cultural clash implied by the European conquest. These glimpses on the Mesoamerican past through head practices are novel, as is the general treatment of methodology and theoretical frames. Although it is anchored in physical anthropology and archaeology (specifically bioarchaeology), this volume also integrates knowledge derived from anatomy and human physiology, historical and iconographic sources, linguistics (polisemia) and ethnography. The scope of this work is rounded up by the transcription and interpretation of the many colonial eye witness accounts on indigenous head treatments in Mesoamerica and beyond.

Download or read book Bioarchaeology of Pre Columbian Mesoamerica written by Catherine M. Willermet and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Bioarchaeology of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica' presents work from both Mesoamerican-based and U.S.-based researchers who use a combination of cultural ethnohistorical, (bio)archaeological, dental, and chemical data in an interdisciplinary approach to research population history in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. The goals for such a project are threefold: (1) to encourage more cross-fertilization of work between fields and subfields, in order to more appropriately address large regional questions of population history; (2) to explicitly address the theoretical and methodological challenges and rewards of interdisciplinary research; and (3) to introduce a larger audience to the state of interdisciplinary work in Mesoamerica.

Download or read book The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology written by Vera Tiesler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2022-05-23 with total page 1055 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together a range of contributors with different and hybrid academic backgrounds to explore, through bioarchaeology, the past human experience in the territories that span Mesoamerica. This handbook provides systematic bioarchaeological coverage of skeletal research in the ancient Mesoamericas. It offers an integrated collection of engrained, bioculturally embedded explorations of relevant and timely topics, such as population shifts, lifestyles, body concepts, beauty, gender, health, foodways, social inequality, and violence. The additional treatment of new methodologies, local cultural settings, and theoretic frames rounds out the scope of this handbook. The selection of 36 chapter contributions invites readers to engage with the human condition in ancient and not-so-ancient Mesoamerica and beyond. The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology is addressed to an audience of Mesoamericanists, students, and researchers in bioarchaeology and related fields. It serves as a comprehensive reference for courses on Mesoamerica, bioarchaeology, and Native American studies.

Download or read book The Bioarchaeology of Socio Sexual Lives written by Pamela L. Geller and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-07-28 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume uses bioarchaeological remains to examine the complexities and diversity of past socio-sexual lives. This book does not begin with the presumption that certain aspects of sex, gender, and sexuality are universal and longstanding. Rather, the case studies within—extend from Neolithic Europe to pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to the nineteenth-century United States—highlight the importance of culturally and historically contextualizing socio-sexual beliefs and practices. The Bioarchaeology of Socio-Sexual Lives highlights a major shortcoming in many scholarly and popular presentations of past socio-sexual lives. They reveal little about the ancient or historic group under study and much about Western society’s modern state of heteronormative affairs. To interrogate commonsensical thinking about socio-sexual identities and interactions, this volume draws from critical feminist and queer studies. Reciprocally, bioarchaeological studies extend social theorizing about sex, gender, and sexuality that emphasizes the modern, conceptual, and discursive. Ultimately, The Bioarchaeology of Socio-Sexual Lives invites readers to think more deeply about humanity’s diversity, the naturalization of culture, and the past’s presentation in mass-media communications.

Download or read book The Bioarchaeology of Individuals written by Ann L.W. Stodder and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2012-04-22 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Bronze Age Thailand to Viking Iceland, from an Egyptian oasis to a family farm in Canada, The Bioarchaeology of Individuals invites readers to unearth the daily lives of people throughout history. Covering a span of more than four thousand years of human history and focusing on individuals who lived between 3200 BC and the nineteenth century, the essays in this book examine the lives of nomads, warriors, artisans, farmers, and healers. The contributors employ a wide range of tools, including traditional macroscopic skeletal analysis, bone chemistry, ancient DNA, grave contexts, and local legends, sagas, and other historical information. The collection as a whole presents a series of osteobiographies--profiles of the lives of specific individuals whose remains were excavated from archaeological sites. The result offers a more "personal" approach to mortuary archaeology; this is a book about people--not just bones.

Download or read book Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya written by Andrew K. Scherer and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2015-11-15 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the tombs of the elite to the graves of commoners, mortuary remains offer rich insights into Classic Maya society. In Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya: Rituals of Body and Soul, the anthropological archaeologist and bioarchaeologist Andrew K. Scherer explores the broad range of burial practices among the Maya of the Classic period (AD 250–900), integrating information gleaned from his own fieldwork with insights from the fields of iconography, epigraphy, and ethnography to illuminate this society’s rich funerary traditions. Scherer’s study of burials along the Usumacinta River at the Mexican-Guatemalan border and in the Central Petén region of Guatemala—areas that include Piedras Negras, El Kinel, Tecolote, El Zotz, and Yaxha—reveals commonalities and differences among royal, elite, and commoner mortuary practices. By analyzing skeletons containing dental and cranial modifications, as well as the adornments of interred bodies, Scherer probes Classic Maya conceptions of body, wellness, and the afterlife. Scherer also moves beyond the body to look at the spatial orientation of the burials and their integration into the architecture of Maya communities. Taking a unique interdisciplinary approach, the author examines how Classic Maya deathways can expand our understanding of this society’s beliefs and traditions, making Mortuary Landscapes of the Classic Maya an important step forward in Mesoamerican archeology.

Download or read book Bioarchaeology and Identity Revisited written by Kelly J. Knudson and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2020-05-11 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Choice Outstanding Academic Title This volume highlights new directions in the study of social identities in past populations. Building on the field-defining research in Bioarchaeology and Identity in the Americas, contributors expand the scope of the subject regionally, theoretically, and methodologically. This collection moves beyond the previous focus on single aspects of identity by demonstrating multi-scalar approaches and by explicitly addressing intersectionality in the archaeological record. Case studies in this volume come from both New World and Old World settings, including sites in North America, South America, Asia, and the Middle East. The communities investigated range from early Holocene hunter-gatherers to nineteenth-century urban poor. Contributors broaden the concept of identity to include disability or health status, age, social class, religion, occupation, and communal and familial identities. In addition to combining bioarchaeological data with oral history and material artifacts, they use new methods including social network analysis and more humanistic approaches in osteobiography. Bioarchaeology and Identity Revisited offers updated ways of conceptualizing identity across time and space. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Download or read book Embattled Bodies Embattled Places written by Andrew K. Scherer and published by Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places examines the nature of war in Mesoamerica and the Andes. Drawing on anthropological archaeology, bioarchaeology, and ethnohistory, the essays consider the similarities and differences of warfare in cross-cultural perspective, from the importance of captive-taking to rituals of sacrifice and performance.

Download or read book Bioarchaeology written by Mark Q. Sutton and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-11-15 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bioarchaeology covers the history and general theory of the field plus the recovery and laboratory treatment of human remains. Bioarchaeology is the study of human remains in context from an archaeological and anthropological perspective. The book explores, through numerous case studies, how the ways a society deals with their dead can reveal a great deal about that society, including its religious, political, economic, and social organizations. It details recovery methods and how, once recovered, human remains can be analyzed to reveal details about the funerary system of the subject society and inform on a variety of other issues, such as health, demography, disease, workloads, mobility, sex and gender, and migration. Finally, the book highlights how bioarchaeological techniques can be used in contemporary forensic settings and in investigations of genocide and war crimes. In Bioarchaeology, theories, principles, and scientific techniques are laid out in a clear, understandable way, and students of archaeology at undergraduate and graduate levels will find this an excellent guide to the field.

Download or read book Social Skins of the Head written by María Cecilia Lozada and published by University of New Mexico Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introducing the social skins of the head in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes / Vera Tiesler and María Cecilia Lozada -- What was being sealed? : cranial modification and ritual binding among the Maya / William N. Duncan and Gabrielle Vail -- Head shapes and group identity on the fringes of the Maya lowlands / Vera Tiesler and Alfonso Lacadena -- Head shaping and tooth modification among the classic Maya of the Usumacinta River kingdoms / Andrew K. Scherer -- Cultural modification of the head : the case of Teopancazco in Teotihuacan / Luis Adrián Alvarado-Viñas and Linda R. Manzanilla -- Face painting among the classic Maya elites : an iconographic study / María Luisa Vázquez de Ágredos Pascual, Cristina Vidal Lorenzo, and Patricia Horcajada Campos -- The importance of visage, facial treatment, and idiosyncratic traits in Maya royal portraiture during the reign of K'inich Janaab' Pakal of Palenque, 615-683 CE / Laura Filloy Nadal -- The representation of hair in the art of Chichén Itzá / Virginia E. Miller -- Effigies of death : representation, use, and reuse of human skulls at the Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan / Ximena Chávez Balderas -- Emic perspectives on cultural practices pertaining to the head in Mesoamerica : a commentary and discussion of the chapters in part one / Gabrielle Vail -- Afterlives of the decapitated in ancient Peru / John W. Verano -- Head processing among La Ramada tradition of Southern Peru / María Cecilia Lozada, Alanna Warner-Smith, Rex C. Haydon, Hans Barnard, Augusto Cardona Rosas, and Raphael Greenberg -- From Wawa to "Trophy Head" : meaning, representation, and bioarchaeology of human heads from ancient Tiwanaku / Deborah E. Blom and Nicole C. Couture -- Cranial modification in the central Andes : person, language, political economy / Bruce Mannheim, Allison R. Davis, and Matthew C. Velasco -- Violence, power, and head extraction in the Kallawaya Region, Bolivia / Sara K. Becker and Sonia Alconini -- Semiotic portraits : expressions of communal identity in Wari faceneck vessels / Andrea Vazquez de Arthur -- Using their heads : the lives of crania in the Andes / Christine A. Hastorf

Download or read book Theoretical Approaches in Bioarchaeology written by Colleen M. Cheverko and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-08-20 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theoretical Approaches in Bioarchaeology emphasizes how several different theoretical perspectives can be used to reconstruct the biocultural experiences of humans in the past. Over the past few decades, bioarchaeology has been transformed through methodological revisions, technological advances, and the inclusion of external theoretical frameworks from the social and natural sciences. These interdisciplinary perspectives became the backbone of bioarchaeology and strengthened the discipline’s ability to address questions about past biological and social dynamics. Consequently, how, why, and when to apply external theory to studies of past populations are central and timely questions tied to future developments of the discipline. This book facilitates ongoing dialogues about theoretical applications within the field and interdisciplinary connections between bioarchaeology, biological anthropology, and other disciplines. Each chapter highlights how a theoretical framework originating from a social or natural science connects to past and future bioarchaeological research. For scholars and archaeologists interested in the theoretical applications of bioarchaeology, this book will be an excellent resource.

Download or read book The Odd the Unusual and the Strange written by Tracy K. Betsinger and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abnormal burial practices have long been a source of fascination and debate within the fields of mortuary archaeology and bioarchaeology. The Odd, the Unusual, and the Strange investigates an unparalleled geographic and temporal range of burials that differ from the usual customs of their broader societies, emphasizing the importance of a holistic, context-driven approach to these intriguing cases. From an Andean burial dating to 3500 BC to mummified bodies interred in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo, Sicily, during the twentieth century, the studies in this volume cross the globe and span millennia. The unusual cases explored here include Native American cemeteries in Illinois, “vampire” burials in medieval Poland, and a mass grave of decapitated soldiers in ancient China. Moving away from the simplistic assumption that these burials represent people who were considered deviant in society, contributors demonstrate the importance of an integrated biocultural approach in determining why an individual was buried in an unusual way. Drawing on historical, sociocultural, archaeological, and biological data, this volume critically evaluates the binary of “typical” versus “atypical” burials. It expands our understanding of the continuum of variation within mortuary practices, helping researchers better interpret burial evidence to learn about the people and cultures of the past. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Download or read book New Perspectives on Human Sacrifice and Ritual Body Treatments in Ancient Maya Society written by Vera Tiesler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-02-15 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Maya sacrifice and related posthumous body manipulation. The editors bring together an international group of contributors from the area studied: archaeologists as well as anthropologists, forensic anthropologists, art historians and bioarchaeologists. This interdisciplinary approach provides a comprehensive perspective on these sites as well as the material culture and biological evidence found there

Download or read book Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia written by Kimberly D. Williams and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2019-05-27 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together expert s in archaeology and bioarchaeology to examine continuity and change in ancient Arabian mortuary practices. While most previous investigations have been limited geographically to Egypt and the Levant, this volume focuses on the lesser-studied southeastern Arabian Peninsula, showing what death and burial can reveal about the lifestyles of the region’s prehistoric communities. In case studies from Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain, contributors explore the transition from the earliest to the most complex mortuary monuments in the Bronze Age and beyond. They consider sociopolitical and environmental factors that may have influenced mortuary practices and what skeletal biogeochemistry can reveal about changing mobility and access to food resources. They also discuss sites that illustrate more nuanced shifts in burial traditions that took place during the evolution of the Hafit to the Umm an-Nar cultures, a period of transformation often neglected because the semi-nomadic lifestyle of this intermediary culture left behind a limited archaeological record. Burial patterns reveal a shift from cairns to communal tombs that offers new insight into the relationship between the mortuary landscape and the living, while the presence of animal bones interred with human remains embodies the significance of herd management as symbols of both territoriality and reproduction. By using skeletal remains as a rich source of scientific data that complements studies of burial context, this volume represents an important turning point for mortuary research in the region. Its novel interdisciplinary and international perspective provides a synthesis of new ideas and interpretations that will guide future archaeological research in Arabia and beyond. A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen Contributors: Eugenio Bortolini | Charlotte Marie Cable | Guillaume Gernez | Jessica Giraud | Richard Thorburn Howard Cuttler | Aurea Izquierdo Zamora | Olivia Munoz | Jill A. Weber | Benjamin W. Porter | Alexis Boutin | Debra L. Martin | Kathryn M. Baustian | Anna J. Osterholz | Peter Magee

Download or read book The Biocultural Consequences of Contact in Mexico written by Heather J. H. Edgar and published by University Press of Florida. This book was released on 2023-04-18 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the long-lasting effects of European colonization on Mexican populations The Biocultural Consequences of Contact in Mexico explores how Mexican populations have been shaped both culturally and biologically by the arrival of Spanish conquistadors and the years following the defeat of the Aztec empire in 1521. Contributors to this volume draw on a diverse set of methods from archaeology, bioarchaeology, genetics, and history to examine the response to European colonization, providing evidence for the resilience of the Mexican people in the face of tumultuous change. Essays focus on Central Mexico, Yucatan, and Oaxaca, providing a cross-regional perspective, and they highlight Mexican scholars’ work and viewpoints. They examine the effects of the castas system—which the colonizers used to organize society according to parentage and the social construction of race—on individuals’ and groups’ access to power, social mobility, health, and mate choice. Contributors illuminate the poorly understood extent that this system—and the national identity of mestizaje that replaced it—caused inequality and the structural violence of stress and health disparities, as well as genetic admixture. Five hundred years after the Spanish first clashed with Aztec forces and began to influence modern Mexico, this volume adds to discussions of colonialism, the reconstruction of biosocial relationships, and the work of decolonization. Students and scholars in anthropology and history will gain insights into how human populations transform and adapt in the wake of major historical events that result in migration, demographic change, and social upheaval. Contributors: Josefina Bautista Martínez | Alfredo Coppa | Andrea Cucina | Heather J. H. Edgar | Blanca Z. González-Sobrino | María Teresa Jaén Esquivel | Haagen D. Klaus | Michaela Lucci | Abigail Meza-Peñaloza | Emily Moes | Corey S. Ragsdale | Katelyn M. Rusk | Robert C. Schwaller | Julie K. Wesp | Cathy Willermet A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

Download or read book The Market for Mesoamerica written by Cara G. Tremain and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book will explore past, current, and future policies and trends concerning the sale of antiquities from Mesoamerica. Having outlined gaps in our knowledge, this book seeks to identify the substantive steps that the academic community can take toward affecting transparency, accountability, and ethical practice within the Pre-Columbian antiquities market.