Overview

European expansion into the New World fundamentally altered Indigenous populations. The collision between East and West led to the most recent human adaptive transition that spread around the world. Paradoxically, these are some of the least scientifically understood processes of the human past. Representing a new generation of contact and colonialism studies, this volume expands on the traditional focus on the health of conquered peoples by considering how extraordinary biological and cultural transformations were incorporated into the human body and reflected in behavior, identity, and adaptation.By examining changes in diet, mortuary practices, and diseases, these globally diverse case studies demonstrate that the effects of conquest reach further than was ever thought before—to both the colonized and the colonizers. People on all sides of colonial contact became entangled in cultural and biological transformations of social identities, foodways, social structures, and gene pools at points of contact and beyond. Contributors to this volume illustrate previously unknown and variable effects of colonialism by analyzing skeletal remains and burial patterns from never-before-studied regions in the Americas to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe. The result is the first step toward a new synthesis of archaeology and bioarchaeology. Contributors: Rosabella Alvarez-Calderón, Elliot H. Blair, Maria Fernanda Boza, Michele R. Buzon, Romina Casali, Mark N. Cohen, Danielle N. Cook, Marie Elaine Danforth, J. Lynn Funkhouser, Catherine Gaither, Pamela García Laborde| Ricardo A. Guichón, Rocio Guichón Fernández, Heather Guzik, Amanda R. Harvey, Barbara T. Hester, Dale L. Hutchinson, Kristina Killgrove | Haagen D. Klaus | Clark Spencer Larsen | Alan G. Morris | Melissa S. Murphy, Alejandra Ortiz, Megan A. Perry, Emily S. Renschler, Isabelle Ribot, Melisa A. Salerno, Matthew C. Sanger, Paul W. Sciulli, Stuart Tyson Smith, Christopher M. Stojanowski, David Hurst Thomas, Victor D. Thompson, Vera Tiesler, Jason Toohey, Lauren A. Winkler, Pilar Zabala

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9780813068626

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Reviews

Pushes the boundaries of colonial studies. . . . Scholars of all levels, from undergraduates to advanced professionals, should consult this volume in pursuit of excellent examples of biocultural and theory-driven explorations of bioarchaeology. --Antiquity Provides a nuanced, empirical examination of the effects of colonialism on the bodies of the colonized . . . and builds on and adds diversity to earlier studies that focused on contact between Europeans and Indigenous Americans. --Choice Illustrate[s] the historical depth of situations in which people encountered, resisted, adapted to, and changed each other. --Journal of Anthropological Research An excellent and diverse range of studies that provide a fine representation of the current state of affairs and a solid foundation for future research. --Cambridge Archaeological Journal A diverse, well written collection of essays that use multiple lines of evidence to explore contact and colonialism from regions around the globe. . . . Does an excellent job of highlighting wide-ranging research and its large scale comparative possibilities. --Southeastern Archaeology With clear, concise writing and a strong grasp of the material, the editors integrate a call for contextual work with the benefits of applying contemporary theoretical thought. . . . Contribute[s] not only to our understating of these significant cultural shifts, but do[es] so by integrating bioarchaeology, or skeletal approaches, with different data sets from archaeology, history, and demography. --American Journal of Human Biology

Author Information

Melissa S. Murphy, associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wyoming, is coeditor of Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas. Haagen D. Klaus, associate professor of anthropology at George Mason University, is coeditor of Ritual Violence in the Ancient Andes: Reconstructing Sacrifice on the North Coast of Peru.

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