Springer Bioarchaeological Analyses and Bodies: New Ways of Knowing Anatomical and Archaeological Skeletal Collections (Bioarchaeology and Social Theory)

This volume features bioarchaeological research that interrogates the human skeleton in concert with material culture, ethnographic data and archival research. This approach provides examples of how these intersections of inquiry can be used to consider the larger social and political contexts in which people lived and the manner in which they died. Bioarchaeologists are in a unique position to develop rich interpretations of the lived experiences of skeletonized individuals. Using their skills in multiple contexts, bioarchaeologists are also situated to consider the ethical nature and inherent humanity of the research collections that have been used because they represent deceased for whom there are records identifying them. These collections have been the basis for generating basic information regarding the human skeletal transcript. Ironically though, these collections themselves have not been studied with the same degree of understanding and interpretation that is applied to archaeological collections. From the Back Cover This volume features bioarchaeological research that interrogates the human skeleton in concert with material culture, ethnographic data and archival research. This approach provides examples of how these intersections of inquiry can be used to consider the larger social and political contexts in which people lived and the manner in which they died. Bioarchaeologists are in a unique position to develop rich interpretations of the lived experiences of skeletonized individuals. Using their skills in multiple contexts, bioarchaeologists are also situated to consider the ethical nature and inherent humanity of the research collections that have been used because they represent deceased for whom there are records identifying them.  These collections have been the basis for generating basic information regarding the human skeletal transcript. Ironically though, these collections themselves have not been studied with the same degree of understanding and interpretation that is applied to archaeological collections. About the Author Pamela K. Stone is the Director of the Foundation for Psychocultural Research-Hampshire College, Culture, Brain, and Development Program, and a senior faculty associate in the School of Critical Social Inquiry at Hampshire College, in Amherst, MA. She received her B.A. from Hampshire College (1990), and her M.A. (1995) and Ph.D. (2000) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. She would characterize herself as a broadly trained biocultural-bioarchaeologist. She began her anthropological career exploring evolutionary anthropology, and participating in research at Koobi Fora, Kenya. She then shifted to examining the ethics of skeletal analysis in the wake of the Native American Graves Repatriation and Protection legislation. She has worked at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in the department of anthropology, and at the American Museum on Natural History. Her graduate research has included work on mortuary sites on the Arabian Peninsula, focusing on arid lands, paleopathology, and world-systems analysis. Her PhD on paleoobstetrics explored questions of interpretations and cultural bias in reading females in the past. Within this focus she examined skeletal remains from the American Southwest to consider the complex roles that women played in the past, beyond reproduction. She now focuses her work on understanding how biology is negotiated by culture at birth, and how life histories are explored through biology in death, offering ways to consider how culture narrates these stories. This type of research has shaped much of her work as she aims to illuminate patterns of morbidity and mortality for people on the margins through biological, cultural, and ethnographic information. She has applied her skeletal analysis skills to help in forensic investigations, and is a qualified expert witness. Her curre