"Can be considered as a real starting point for a biological approach of the pre-Columbian settlement of the Caribbean."-- Benoit Berard, Universite des Antilles For more than a century, archaeologists and anthropologists have searched for evidence of when and how peoples first settled the Caribbean islands. Research on this area is pivotal for understanding the migration of peoples in the New World and how small and large populations develop biologically and culturally through time.This unique collection synthesizes our archaeological and biological knowledge about the pre-Columbian...

"Provides data and information that can be used for comparative analysis and as a foundation for further exploration. Inviting research from various geographic, cultural, and temporal locales from around the globe, the editors present a complex snapshot of the past."--Anne L. Grauer, editor of A Companion to Paleopathology "This cohesive collection of empirically based studies integrates biological and archaeological data in order to investigate social behavior and its linkages with human health. Relevant to anyone interested in the intersections of culture, health, and...

"Brings together studies from diverse time periods and geographic regions to deliver a comprehensive biocultural treatment of dental modification. The volume amply documents the diversity of ways humans modify their teeth and the variety of reasons they may do so."--Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg, author of What Teeth Reveal about Human Evolution Tooth modification has been practiced throughout many time periods and places to convey information about individual people, their societies, and their relationships to others. This volume represents the wide spectrum of intentional dental modification in...

As researchers become increasingly interested in studying the lives of children in antiquity, this volume argues for the importance of a collaborative biocultural approach. Contributors draw on fields including physiology, archaeology, sociocultural anthropology, paediatrics, and psychology to show that a diversity of research methods is the best way to illuminate the complexities of childhood.

By examining the physical conditions of inmates that might have contributed to their institutionalization, as well as to the resulting health consequences, Jonny Geber sheds new and unprecedented light on Ireland's Great Hunger.

Integrates data from researchers in bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology to explain when and why group-targeted violence occurs. By analysing skeletal remains within their broader cultural and historical contexts this volume opens up important new understandings of the underlying social processes that continue to lead to these tragedies.

Offers an interdisciplinary view of the migration, mobility, ethnicity, and social identities of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican peoples. In studies that combine bioarchaeology, ethnohistory, isotope data, and dental morphology, contributors demonstrate the rewards of such integrative work when applied to large regional questions of population history.