The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western HemisphereRichard H. Steckel, Jerome C. Rose For the same reasons that explorers of the early twentieth century strove to reach the poles, and their modern counterparts journey to outer space, most people want to visualize the contours of the human experience - the peaks of adaptive success that led to the expansion of civilization, and the troughs in which human presence ebbed. The Backbone of History defines the emerging field of macrobioarchaeology by gathering skeletal evidence on seven basic indicators of health to assess chronic conditions that affected individuals who lived in the Western Hemisphere from 5000 BC to the late nineteenth century. Signs of biological stress in childhood and of degeneration in joints and in teeth increased in the several millennia before the arrival of Columbus as populations moved into less healthy ecological environments. Thus, pre-Colombian Native Americans were among the healthiest and the least healthy groups to live in the Western Hemisphere before the twentieth century |
Contents
Preface | xi |
List of Contributors | xv |
PART I | 1 |
Introduction | 3 |
METHODOLOGY | 9 |
Reconstructing Health Profiles from Skeletal Remains | 11 |
A Health Index from Skeletal Remains | 61 |
Paleodemography of the Americas From Ancient Times to Colonialism and Beyond | 94 |
Health and Nutrition in PreHispanic Mesoamerica | 307 |
NATIVE AMERICANS AND EUROAMERICANS IN SOUTH AMERICA | 339 |
Introduction | 341 |
Patterns of Health and Nutrition in Prehistoric and Historic Ecuador | 343 |
Economy Nutrition and Disease in Prehistoric Coastal Brazil A Case Study from the State of Santa Catarina | 376 |
NATIVE AMERICANS IN NORTH AMERICA | 401 |
Introduction | 403 |
A Biohistory of Health and Behavior in the Georgia Bight The Agricultural Transition and the Impact of European Contact | 406 |
EUROAMERICANS AND AFRICANAMERICANS IN NORTH AMERICA | 125 |
Introduction | 127 |
The Health of the Middle Class The St Thomas Anglican Church Cemetery Project | 130 |
The Poor in the MidNineteenthCentury Northeastern United States Evidence from the Monroe County Almshouse Rochester New York | 162 |
The Effects of NineteenthCentury Military Service on Health | 185 |
The Health of Slaves and Free Blacks in the East | 208 |
The Quality of AfricanAmerican Life in the Old Southwest near the Turn of the Twentieth Century | 226 |
NATIVE AMERICANS IN CENTRAL AMERICA | 279 |
Introduction | 281 |
Social Disruption and the Maya Civilization of Mesoamerica A Study of Health and Economy of the Last Thousand Years | 283 |
Native Americans in Eastern North America The Southern Great Lakes and Upper Ohio Valley | 440 |
Cultural Longevity and Biological Stress in the American Southwest | 481 |
Health Nutrition and Demographic Change in Native California | 506 |
Welfare History on the Great Plains Mortality and Skeletal Health 1650 to 1900 | 524 |
Patterns of Health in the Western Hemisphere | 563 |
Conclusions | 583 |
The Body as Evidence The Body of Evidence | 593 |
Overspecialization and Remedies | 603 |
609 | |
Other editions - View all
The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere Richard H. Steckel,Jerome C. Rose No preview available - 2005 |
Common terms and phrases
adults African-American agriculture almshouse American Journal analysis anemia archaeological Archaic Arikara Armelagos average Belleville bioarchaeological Bioarchaeology biological bone burials California caries Cedar Grove Cemetery Cholula coast Copán cribra orbitalia Cuicuilco Dallas death decline degenerative joint disease demographic dental dental caries diet differences early ecological Ecuador enamel hypoplasias equestrian nomads estimated European evidence expectancy at birth fertility Forte Marechal Luz fractures Freedman's frequency Georgia Bight groups growth health index Highland historical human increase Indians indicators individuals infections infectious disease Journal of Physical Larsen lesions living maize Male Female Maya mean age-at-death Mexico mortality Native Americans nineteenth century nutrition Owsley paleodemography Paleopathology pathology pattern percent periosteal reactions Physical Anthropology population porotic hyperostosis Press rates region Santa Saunders Sciulli scores skeletal data skeletal remains skeletal samples skeletons social stature Steckel stress subadults Table teeth Tlajinga Tlatilco tooth trauma Ubelaker University urban Western Hemisphere Xcaret
References to this book
Human Ecology: Biocultural Adaptations in Human Communities Holger Schutkowski No preview available - 2005 |