Overview

East Asia spans more than 10 million square kilometres. The human remains examined by the contributors in this volume date from the Early Neolithic (more than 12,000 years ago) to the Iron Age (up to AD 500). Bioarchaeology of East Asia interprets human skeletal collections from a region where millets, rice, and several other important cereals were cultivated, leading to attendant forms of agricultural development that were accompanied by significant technological innovations. The contributors follow the diffusion of these advanced ideas to other parts of Asia, and unravel a maze of population movements. In addition, they explore the biological implications of relatively rare subsistence strategies more or less unique to East Asia: millet agriculture, mobile pastoralism with limited cereal farming, and rice farming combined with reliance on marine resources. Diverse scholarly traditions—from China, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, Australia, and the United States—supply a constructive mix of conceptual frameworks and methodologies. Chinese-to-English translations make chapters available that might not otherwise be published outside of China. Ideas stemming from this collection will significantly boost collaborative work among bioarchaeologists and other scientists working in East Asia.

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Reviews

""Succeeds in providing good coverage of the current state of scientific research on major issues in two broad subject areas in bioarchaeology: (a) population history and interaction, and (b) community health with a focus on diet and disease.""--American Journal of Physical Anthropology ""The range of ecological contexts and subsistence practices, the time depth, and the geographical expanse represented in the book amply demonstrate the important role that studies of Asian prehistory should play in addressing the big questions of human biological history.""--Journal of Anthropological Research ""Extremely useful as a good introduction to the region and as a resource for comparative data for scholars in Asia and the Pacific.""--Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology ""A welcomed compendium to a large anthropological body of research, which had previously lacked data from this historically and culturally diverse region, covering the areas from the western Inner Asian steppes east to Japan, and from Mongolia in the north, south to the tropical Malay Archipelago.""--Anthropos

Author Information

Kate Pechenkina is chairs the department of anthropology at Queens College of the City University of New York, USA. Marc Oxenham, senior lecturer in archaeology and bioanthropology at Australian National University, is the editor of Forensic Approaches to Death, Disaster and Abuse.

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