Lehrbuch der Anthropologie in systematischer Darstellung: mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der anthropologischen Methoden ; für Studierende, Ärzte und Forschungsreisende ; mit 460 Abbildungen im Text, 3 Tafeln und 2 Beobachtungsblättern

The remains of past people are a testament to their lived experiences and of the environment in which they lived. Synthesising the latest research, this book critically examines the sources of evidence used to understand and interpret violence in bioarchaeology, exploring the significant light such evidence can shed on past hierarchies, gender roles and life courses. The text draws on a diverse range of social and clinical science research to investigate violence and trauma in the archaeological record, focussing on human remains. It examines injury patterns in different groups as well as the biological, psychological and cultural factors that make us behave violently, how our living environment influences injury and violence, the models used to identify and interpret violence in the past, and how violence is used as a social tool. Drawing on a range of case studies, Redfern explores new research directions that will contribute to nuanced interpretations of past lives.

Injury and Trauma in Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Violence in Past Lives

Objectives
Through pathological and stable isotope analyses, this study probes the stressors, disease ecology, and diets of enslaved individuals from an antebellum plantation cemetery. The study aims to highlight how interindividual isotopic differences reveal that marginalization is not uniformly experienced or embodied.

Methods
The cemetery population consists of 16 individuals; dental and skeletal pathological indicators were collected for all individuals, and light stable isotope ratios (δ15N, δ13C) were generated from the collagen and hydroxyapatite of nine individuals.

Results
The analyzed individuals have high frequencies of enamel defects—similar to contemporaneous enslaved cemetery individuals—and particularly high frequencies of carious lesions. Skeletal analysis shows evidence of chronic conditions among several individuals, two of whom likely have tuberculosis. Although the sample size is small, stable isotope values display interesting trends: there is interindividual heterogeneity in δ13C values, and most subadults from the cemetery have lower δ15N and higher δ13C values than the sampled adults. These relationships can be tested with larger datasets and have the potential to reveal important information about slave foodways and the broader experience of enslavement.

Conclusions
The results of this study suggest that racial discrimination, enslavement, and age do not fully account for the heterogeneity in degree of embodied stressors. There are likely other factors at play, intersecting with the aforementioned, that influenced the lived experience of slavery and the degree of marginalization.

Interindividual differences in embodied marginalization: Osteological and stable isotope analyses of antebellum enslaved individuals

In 1992, Norm Sauer called for a language shift in which practitioners would move away from the socially loaded term "race" and replace it with the less provocative term "ancestry." While many heeded the call and moved towards ancestry in their research and reports, the actual approach to research and analysis did not change. In response to this change, there was a large growth in ancestry estimation method development in the early decade of the 2000s. However, the practice of ancestry estimation did not adequately incorporate evolutionary theory in interpretation or trait selection and continued with little critical reflection. In the past decade, there has been an increase in ancestry validation methods with little critique of the "race" concept or discussion of modern human variation or reference samples. To advance, forensic anthropologists need to reckon with the practice of ancestry estimation as it is currently practiced. We are calling for another reform in the axiom focusing on evolutionary theory, population history, trait selection, and population-level reference samples. The practice needs to abandon the terms ancestry and race completely and recalibrate to an analysis of population affinity. Population affinity is a statistical approach based on the underlying population structure that would allow the understanding of how microevolutionary forces act in concert with historical events (e.g., colonization, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, etc.) to shape modern human variation. This is not to be confused with geographic ancestry that all too often can be perceived as interchangeable with social race and as an affirmation of the biological concept of race. It is time to critically evaluate the social and scientific implications of the current practice of ancestry estimation, and re-frame our approach to studying and analyzing modern human variation through a population structure approach.

The need to incorporate human variation and evolutionary theory in forensic anthropology: A call for reform.

espanolEn este articulo se analiza el trabajo intelectual y politico basado en el Laboratorio de Investigacion Cobb de la Universidad de Howard en relacion con ideas nuevas y emergentes en bioarqueologia. Para este proposito, se enfatizan aspectos de la investigacion centrada en las colecciones de cementerios africanos de W. Montague Cobb y Nueva York. El analisis incluye el periodo durante el cual ambas colecciones se amenazaban en el laboratorio al mismo tiempo (1992–2003). Sostengo que la medida en que este trabajo se considera relevante para los desarrollos academicos en bioarqueologia se basa en la forma en que se considera el trabajo academico producido por personas de color en general. A menudo se considera "demasiado especifico" en el enfoque para ser generalmente relevante para las discusiones disciplinarias. Sin embargo, el examen de las formas en que la disciplina y los investigadores estan socialmente integrados revela que esto es un producto del pensamiento racializado que considera el trabajo academico blanco universalmente aplicable a la investigacion intelectual, mientras que el trabajo academico de los no blancos no lo es. La teoria feminista negra y las criticas a la ciencia se utilizan para demostrar que los analisis de la desigualdad centrados en la raza son necesarios para identificar y deconstruir las desigualdades estructurales inherentes en la disciplina. El concepto de Gina Athena Ulysse de una perspectiva nativa alternativa/modificada se utiliza para ilustrar como esta literatura proporciona un lenguaje para nombrar las subjetividades complejas de los investigadores que estudian y experimentan la desigualdad estructural. EnglishThis article analyzes intellectual and political work based in Howard University’s Cobb Research Laboratory relative to “new” and “emerging” ideas in bioarchaeology. Research conducted on remains from the Cobb Skeletal Collection and New York African Burial Ground is highlighted for this purpose. The analysis includes the period during which both collections were housed in the laboratory at the same time (1992–2003). I argue that the extent to which this work is considered relevant to scholarly developments in bioarchaeology is informed by the ways scholarship produced by people of color is regarded in general. It is often deemed “too specific” in focus to be generally relevant to disciplinary discussions. However, examination of the ways the discipline and researchers are socially embedded reveals this to be a product of racialized thinking that deems White scholarship universally applicable to intellectual inquiry—whereas the scholarship of non-Whites is not. Black-feminist theory and critiques of science are used to demonstrate that analyses of inequality centering on race are necessary for identifying and deconstructing the structural inequalities inherent in the discipline. Gina Athena Ulysse’s concept of an alter(ed)native perspective is used to illustrate how this literature provides language to name the complex subjectivities of researchers who both study and experience structural inequality. francaisCet article est une analyse des travaux intellectuels et politiques effectues dans le Laboratoire de recherche Cobb de la Howard University, et traitant des idees nouvelles et emergentes en matiere de bioarcheologie. Certains aspects de la recherche s'interessant notamment aux collections de W. Montague Cobb et du Cimetiere africain de New York sont mis en exergue a cette fin. L'analyse comprend la periode durant laquelle les deux collections ont ete accueillies dans le laboratoire a la meme epoque (1992–2003). Je postule que la mesure suivant laquelle ces travaux sont juges pertinents au regard des developpements de recherche en bioarcheologie est influencee par les manieres dont le savoir produit par les personnes de couleur est considere de maniere generale. Il est souvent juge « trop specifique » quant a son theme central pour etre plus generalement pertinent aux discussions disciplinaires. Cependant, l'etude des manieres dont la discipline et les chercheurs sont socialement integres met en lumiere le fait que ceci est le produit d'une pensee racialisee qui estime que le savoir blanc est universellement applicable a la recherche intellectuelle—alors que le savoir des non-blancs ne l'est pas. La theorie feministe noire et les critiques de la science sont utilisees pour demontrer que les analyses de l'inegalite centrees sur la race sont necessaires afin d'identifier et de deconstruire les inegalites structurelles inherentes a la discipline. Le concept de Gina Athena Ulysse d'une perspective alter(ee)native est utilisee pour illustrer comment la litterature fournit un langage pour nommer les subjectivites complexes des chercheurs qui etudient et font l'experience de l'inegalite structurelle.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s41636-019-00224-5.pdf

An Alter(ed)native Perspective on Historical Bioarchaeology

Bioarchaeology is fraught with profound ethical quandaries, yet it has lagged behind the larger discipline of anthropology in the development of ethical principles and a professional code of ethics. Here, we propose an additional ethical justification for bioarchaeology based on relational ethics, theoretical work on embodiment, and the produced and constituted nature of human bodies, and on deriving meaning from skeletal remains: highly contextualized skeletal data analyzed in a relational, contingent interpretive space can generate otherwise inaccessible, direct information about the constitutive, productive effects of processes like power and oppression on human bodies. This enables recovery and recognition of the agency, singularity, and meaning of past peoples through giving voice to their narratives. This justification is not universally applicable; it is best suited to skeletal remains from marginalized, disenfranchised, and impoverished individuals and communities. We conclude with a case study applying the approach to a skeletal sample from the 18th-19th century Mississippi State Asylum to demonstrate that the approach complements more traditional bioarchaeological research while providing an additional foundation for ethical discourses and debates in the field.

Recovering the ‘Body Politic’: a Relational Ethics of Meaning for Bioarchaeology

Ancestry estimation in forensic anthropology: A review

Dental development is one of the most widely utilized and accurate methods available for estimating age in subadult skeletal remains. The timing of tooth growth and development is regulated by genetics and less affected by external factors, allowing reliable estimates of chronological age. Traditional methodology focuses on comparing tooth developmental scores to corresponding age charts. Using the Moorrees, Fanning, and Hunt (MFH) developmental scores, Shackelford and colleagues embed the dental development method in a statistical framework based on transition analysis. They generated numerical parameters underlining each "stage" and age-at-death distribution and applied them to fossil hominins and Neanderthals with limited application to modern humans. We use this same method on a subadult test sample (n = 201), representing modern individuals that may become part of the forensic record. We assess the probability coverage of the Shackelford et al. method derived from MFH standards as it applies to all available dentition. Results indicate promise: the age range at 90% and 95% confidence levels includes the chronological age of almost every individual tested. The maximum likelihood age estimates underestimate age by 0.5-2.5 years for individuals 0-15 years of age and by >2.5 years for individuals 16-18 years of age, as previously shown. In an attempt to refine the method, we adjusted the numerical parameters underlying the stages for developing teeth based on a combined modern reference sample (n = 1,964) and tested these revised parameters using the same test sample. The estimated ages from the modified method differ from the original Shackelford et al. methodology by underestimating age to a lesser degree. The modified method does include mean age-at-attainment values for earlier stages of several teeth, allowing for the calculation of narrower confidence intervals. While this study highlights areas of future research in refining dental developmental aging by transition analysis, it also demonstrates that the Shackelford et al. method is applicable and accurate when aging modern subadults in forensic work.

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New Approaches to Juvenile Age Estimation in Forensics: Application of Transition Analysis via the Shackelford et al. Method to a Diverse Modern Subadult Sample

Kelly R. Kamnikar

Papers

Recovering the ‘Body Politic’: a Relational Ethics of Meaning for Bioarchaeology

Ancestry estimation in forensic anthropology: A review

New Approaches to Juvenile Age Estimation in Forensics: Application of Transition Analysis via the Shackelford et al. Method to a Diverse Modern Subadult Sample

Refining Asian Ancestry Classifications via Cranial Macromorphoscopic Traits

Interpreting physical impairment in the Mississippian Period: A case study from the Holliston Mills Site, TN