Beyond the Bones. Engaging with Disparate Datasets

157 Pages·2016·7.989 MB·English

by  Madeleine Mant, Alyson Holland

Beyond the Bones
Beyond the Bones
Engaging with Disparate Datasets
Edited by
Madeleine Mant
Alyson Holland
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To my parents, who taught me to delight in the written word, and to
Dr. Nancy Lovell, my first mentor in anthropology. Thank you all for
your unwavering support and encouragement.
—Madeleine Mant
To my parents, who have supported me throughout this process and in
all my other journeys.
—Alyson Holland
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
J.Bekvalac
CentreforHumanBioarchaeology,MuseumofLondon,London,UnitedKingdom
C.delaCova
DepartmentofAnthropology,UniversityofSouthCarolina,Columbia,SC,
UnitedStates;AfricanAmericanStudiesProgram,UniversityofSouthCarolina,
Columbia,SC,UnitedStates
A.Holland
DepartmentofAnthropology,McMasterUniversity,Hamilton,ON,Canada
L.Lockau
DepartmentofAnthropology,McMasterUniversity,Hamilton,ON,Canada
M.Mant
DepartmentofAnthropology,McMasterUniversity,Hamilton,ON,Canada
S.Marciniak
DepartmentofAnthropology,McMasterUniversity,Hamilton,ON,Canada
A.Murphy
FacultyofLifeSciences,UniversityofManchester,Manchester,UnitedKingdom
K.Reusch
SchoolofArchaeology,UniversityofOxford,Oxford,UnitedKingdom
M.A.Schillaci
DepartmentofAnthropology,UniversityofTorontoScarborough,Toronto,
ON,Canada
S.Wichmann
LeidenUniversityCentreforLinguistics,LeidenUniversity,Leiden,TheNetherlands;
LaboratoryofQuantitativeLinguistics,KazanFederalUniversity,Kazan,Russia
FOREWORD
Beyond the Bones is a particularly apt title for this book, because this
volume shows how we can reach beyond the remains of our ancestors
into their actual lived experiences. This is increasingly achievable
through accessing the range of methods available for scholars from a
variety of disciplines and encompassing varied datasets. In tandem,
this provides a platform for making this subject matter accessible to
the interested public. As many of the chapters show, comparative anal-
ysis of different sets of data can be challenging, but this does not mean
that it should not be attempted. The synthetic project, Health and dis-
ease in Britain. From prehistory to the present day (Roberts and Cox,
2003), indeed showed, albeit using only one dataset (skeletal reports),
how it is necessary that skeletal report authors use the same analytical
methods and present data similarly.
The subject matter of the chapters in this book is varied and pro-
vides “something for all.” The extensive project of digital radiography
at the Museum of London (Bekvalac) shows the “added value” of such
work for enhancing knowledge and as a learning tool, not forgetting
the challenges of the ethics of sharing such data widely. Lockau’s focus
on metabolic bone disease emphasizes the need to take heed of clinical
understanding of these diseases and think about diagnosis on a scale of
confident to cautious and, very importantly, the continued need to
explore early stages of bone changes in the skeleton—rather than
always referring to “classic” examples reflecting people who had expe-
rienced the disease for some time. A consideration of living people’s
perceptions of the quality and quantity of their food intake (Holland)
reminds us that, when looking to the past, we can forget that our
ancestors were individuals, as we are today, who had dietary beliefs
and preferences specific to them but also their social context.
Marciniak’s approach to Roman health and well-being through
ancient pathogen DNA analysis shows the benefits of such approaches
that link historical, skeletal, and contextual data, especially the gaps in
knowledge for any one of those datasets that may be filled by another.
Historical data are also a focus for Mant, Murphy, and Reusch.
xiv Foreword
We learn what we do not know about trauma in an 18th/19th century
London hospital through skeletal remains, and yet find that consider-
ing contemporary documents in tandem may tell us about the nuances
of health care decision making (Mant). We find that infant mortality
as seen in skeletons is not linked to climate, following correlation with
many variables (Murphy), and are allowed to explore the world of
castrated people in the past through Reusch’s fascinating multidisci-
plinary study. Finally, and unusually for bioarchaeology, Schillaci and
Wichmann consider linguistic and craniometric data to look at genetic
relationships in a New Mexico Pueblo group, identifying that they did
not “evolve” together.
While dealing with disparate datasets and subject matter, this wel-
come volume will provide bioarchaeologists with ideas and challenges
for being holistic in their approach to understanding the past.
Dr. Charlotte Roberts
Department of Archaeology, Durham University,
Durham, United Kingdom
February 2016
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our thanks to the many scholars who generously agreed to review the
following papers and whose vibrant commentary and discussion made
the review process a delight. Special thanks to Dr. Rachel Ives, who
originally encouraged us to publish this work, and to Dr. Carlina de la
Cova, who has been a champion of this project from its nascent stage.
Thank you also to Dr. Ann Herring, Dr. Megan Brickley, and
Dr. Andrew Nelson for the support and advice during this process.
11
CHAPTER
Introduction
M. Mant and A. Holland
DepartmentofAnthropology,McMasterUniversity,Hamilton,ON,Canada
Anthropological investigations into questions concerning health, disease,
and the life course in past and contemporary societies necessitate
interdisciplinary collaboration. Tackling these “big picture” questions
related to human health-states requires understanding and integrating
social, historical, environmental, and biological contexts and uniting
qualitative and quantitative data from divergent sources and techno-
logies. The crucial interplay between new technologies and traditional
approaches to anthropology necessitates innovative strategies that
promote the emergence of new and alternate views.
While there is recognition within anthropology of the importance
of a multifaceted approach to research design and data collection,
more concrete examples of research questions, designs, and results
that are produced through the integration of different methods are
needed to provide guidance for future researchers and foster the crea-
tion of discourse for constructive critique. New and exciting narratives
are being written in anthropology, but few volumes have yet been
published that bring together these varied voices. In this volume
we seek to explore how current research in physical anthropology is
responding to the challenges posed by disparate datasets. The papers
included in this book will illustrate and promote a discussion of the
problems, limitations, and benefits of drawing upon and comparing
datasets, while illuminating the many ways in which anthropologists
are using multiple data sources to unravel larger conceptual questions
in anthropology.
The papers in this volume were first presented as posters in the
symposium Beyond the Bones: Engaging with Disparate Datasets in
St Louis, Missouri at the 2015 meeting of the American Association of
Physical Anthropologists. The authors, a selection of senior graduate
BeyondtheBones.DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-804601-2.00001-6
©2016ElsevierInc.Allrightsreserved.
2 BeyondtheBones
students and established professionals, answered a call for papers
concerning mixed methods approaches in physical anthropology.
Their work highlights lines of evidence as varied as historical
documents, digital radiography, ancient DNA, linguistic distance, and
public health interviews.
Murphy and Mant’s work illustrates the value of engaging with
historical datasets. Murphy explores infant mortality in historic North
America and the United Kingdom by examining cemetery reports.
Mant highlights the differences in fracture frequencies between
skeletal samples and contemporary hospital admission records to
access aspects of human choice in seeking medical care in the past.
Bekvalac highlights the applications of direct digital radiography
and computed tomography scanning to the unique skeletal collections
of the Museum of London, while Reusch integrates historical,
medical, and paleopathological data to explore the history of castra-
tion. Marciniak describes the technique of direct shotgun sequencing
in ancient DNA research to identify potential pathogens in paleopath-
ological samples in tandem with historical documents. Schillaci and
Wichmann provide an example of the possible integration of linguistic
and bioarchaeological datasets. Lockau considers the contributions of
clinical data to paleopathological studies of metabolic bone disease.
Holland discusses the integration of qualitative and quantitative
methods in studying the perceptions of young adults concerning their
intake of calcium and vitamin D.
These varied voices wrestle with the inherent challenges involved
in working with multiple lines of data, but each chapter demonstrates
the benefits of allowing disparate datasets to speak in concert.