Overview
- Moves beyond dry biomechanical modeling and paleopathological reconstruction to complex cultural interpretation
- Adds a long view to standard ethnographic data and oral histories by incorporating a bioarchaeological perspective
- First systematic analysis in the bioarchaeological literature of self-inflicted pain
Part of the book series: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory (BST)
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Table of contents (13 chapters)
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Front Matter
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No Pain, No Gain: Ideals of Beauty and Success
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Front Matter
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Rituals of Pain and Practice
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Front Matter
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The Politics of Pain: Power and Social Control
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- pain-inducing behaviors and culture
- initiation rites to pious gestures
- pain and achieving broader individual and societal goals
- past and present motivations for self-inflicted pain
- Self-improvement at the cost of considerable pain
- painful ritualized behaviors
- exercise social control through painful practices
About this book
Pain is an evolutionary and adaptive mechanism to prevent harm to an individual. Beyond this, how it is defined, expressed, and borne is dictated culturally. Thus, the study of pain requires a holistic approach crossing cultures, disciplines, and time. This volume explores how and why pain-inducing behaviors are selected, including their potential to demonstrate individuality, navigate social hierarchies, and express commitment to an ideal. It also explores how power dynamics affect individual choice, at times requiring self-induced suffering.
Taking bioanthropological and bioarchaeological approaches, this volume focuses on those who purposefully seek pain to show that, while often viewed as “exotic,” the pervasiveness of pain-inducing practices is more normative than expected. Theory and practice are employed to re-conceptualize pain as a strategic path towards achieving broader individual and societal goals. Past and present motivations for self-inflicted pain, its socio-political repercussions, and the physical manifestations of repetitive or long-term pain inducing behaviors are examined. Chapters span geographic and temporal boundaries and a wide variety of activities to illustrate how purposeful pain is used by individuals for personal expression and manipulated by political powers to maintain the status quo. This volume reveals how bioarchaeology illuminates paleopathology, how social theory enhances bioarchaeology, and how ethnography benefits from a longer temporal perspective.Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Dr. Susan Guise Sheridan is an Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Shereceived her B.A. and M.A.A. from the University of Maryland-College Park, and her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado-Boulder. She has worked extensively in the southern Levant, as well as the American Southwest, and Sudanese Nubia. She coedited a volume on the Hohokam of Pueblo Grande, published on demography and disease in ancient Nubia, and has spent the last 20 years reconstructing aspects of daily life using paleopathology, bone chemistry, and biomechanics for large commingled collections from Jerusalem, Qumran, southern Jordan, and ancient Palestine. She ran a summer National Science Foundation-Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) program in bioarchaeology for 12 years. Sheridan is also the founder and administrator of the very large and active BioAnth News Network on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Dr. Lesley Gregoricka is an Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work at the University of South Alabama. She received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Her research focuses on prehistoric mortuary practices and the biogeochemistry of ancient human skeletal remains to examine changing patterns of mobility and social complexity across Arabia and the Levant. Her publications have appeared in many venues, including the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and the Journal of Archaeological Science, and she recently co-edited a volume entitled Mortuary and Bioarchaeological Perspectives on Bronze Age Arabia with the University Press of Florida. Her work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Center for Bioarchaeological Research, and the American Philosophical Society, and the results of her research covered by The New York Times, NPR, National Geographic, and The Atlantic.Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Purposeful Pain
Book Subtitle: The Bioarchaeology of Intentional Suffering
Editors: Susan Guise Sheridan, Lesley A. Gregoricka
Series Title: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32181-9
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32180-2Published: 04 January 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32183-3Published: 26 August 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-32181-9Published: 03 January 2020
Series ISSN: 2567-6776
Series E-ISSN: 2567-6814
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIX, 271
Number of Illustrations: 33 b/w illustrations, 17 illustrations in colour
Topics: Archaeology