Overview
- Bioarchaeological data are frequently overlooked, used selectively, and misused by popular writers and the media in characterizing, for example, past patterns of conflict, nutrition related disease, epidemics, massacres, and general health when faced with climate change
- Many contemporary topics are frequently misrepresented to non-scholarly audiences and why bioarchaeological data and bioarchaeologists are too infrequently engaged in public representations
- Bioarchaeologists need more active and engaged professionals to become public intellectuals in order to prevent misconceptions and demonstrate the importance of our research to modern populations.
Part of the book series: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory (BST)
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
Bioarchaeologists who study human remains in ancient, historic and contemporary settings are securely anchored within anthropology as anthropologists, yet they have not taken on the pundits the way other subdisciplines within anthropology have. Popular science authors frequently and selectively use bioarchaeological data on demography, disease, violence, migration and diet to buttress their poorly formed arguments about general trends in human behavior and health, beginning with our earliest ancestors. While bioarchaeologists are experts on these subjects, bioarchaeology and bioarchaeological approaches have largely remained invisible to the public eye.
Current issues such as climate change, droughts, warfare, violence, famine, and the effects of disease are media mainstays and are subjects familiar to bioarchaeologists, many of whom have empirical data and informed viewpoints, both for topical exploration and also for predictions based on human behavior in deep time.The contributions in this volume will explore the how and where the data has been misused, present new ways of using evidence in the service of making new discoveries, and demonstrate ways that our long term interdisciplinarity lends itself to transdisciplinary wisdom. We also consider possible reasons for bioarchaeological invisibility and offer advice concerning the absolute necessity of bioarchaeologists speaking out through social media.
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Dr. Buikstra defined the discipline of bioarchaeology, an international field that enriches archaeological knowledge of past peoples through scientific study of their remains and archaeological/historical contexts. Her research regions span the Americas and includes the Eastern Mediterranean. She has published more than 20 books and 200 articles/chapters; she has mentored more than 50 doctoral students. Professor Buikstra was the inaugural editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Paleopathology. Among her current research projects, she is investigating the evolutionary history of ancient tuberculosis in the Americas based on archaeologically-recovered pathogen DNA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Bioarchaeologists Speak Out
Book Subtitle: Deep Time Perspectives on Contemporary Issues
Editors: Jane E. Buikstra
Series Title: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93012-1
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-93011-4Published: 12 November 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-06568-3Published: 08 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-93012-1Published: 26 October 2018
Series ISSN: 2567-6776
Series E-ISSN: 2567-6814
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 334
Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations, 12 illustrations in colour
Topics: Archaeology