Digging for pathogens. Ancient emerging diseases: Their evolutionary, anthropological and archaeological context
✍ Scribed by Roberts, Charlotte A.; Brown, Terence A.
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 35 KB
- Volume
- 112
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-9483
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Owsley provides the most comprehensive paleopathological coverage in the volume, including six photographs. Owsley and Jantz provide a standardization methodology for data collection and include tables from two sites to illustrate their coding system and reporting procedures. While this chapter predates the volume by Buikstra and Ubelaker (1994) of recommended standards of data collection, the paleopathology coding system presented here is more detailed and could provide a supplementary, "in-house" database for large collections.
Chapter 6 by Stodder provides the hallmark case of what the volume is trying to achieve: a synthesis of broadly regional osteological data with an eye toward addressing pertinent biocultural problems by analyzing markers of adaptive success. Stodder describes past bioarchaeological work in the Basin-Range region that encompasses parts of Colorado, New Mexico, and Trans-Pecos Texas, including seminal works by Hrdlika and Hooton. To diagnose subsistence strategy types and adaptive success, Stodder includes some life table information, stature data from several components, and evidence of interpersonal violence and cannibalism. Because of the temporal depth and wide spatial range analyzed, Stodder is careful not to emphasize broad trends but calls for continued subregional investigation of health-and diet-related issues.
Though this volume was published in 1999, all of the chapters were originally published in separate reports between 1988 -1990. The chapters were not reedited for this volume and, except for Chapter 4, lack revisions that include new data or fresh reflections on bioarchaeological issues that