TY - JOUR
T1 - Paleopathology and children in the Andes
T2 - Local/situated biologies and future directions
AU - Blom, Deborah E.
AU - Knudson, Kelly J.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are very grateful to funding from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0202329, SBR-9708001), the University of Vermont's College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean's Fund for Faculty Development, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation (grant 5863). The authors would like to especially thank the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueologicas Antropologicas y Administracion de Tiwanaku (CIAAAT), Unidad de Arqueologia y Museos (UDAM), Ministerio de Culturas y Turismo de Bolivia, Proyecto Wila Jawira, Proyecto Jach'a Marka, our project co-director, Luis Callisaya Medina, and project members Ruth Fontenla, Raquel Moscoso, Mabel Ramirez, Sara Becker, Genesis Morales, Carrie Anne Berryman, Cesar and Marta Callisaya, Delia and Aurora Medina, Anna Renzi, Gretchen Gilbert, Aubrey Brimmer, Richard Witting, and Gina Palefsky, as well as Cullen Black and Jeanne Shea who provided helpful comments on drafts of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of technicians in the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory, particularly Allisen Dahlstedt, and faculty and staff in the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry, both at Arizona State University. We thank the editors of this special issue for their insightful and generous suggestions and their gracious understanding through every step of this process. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Of course, any errors are ours. Finally, we are very thankful for the many contributions of Dr. John Verano, and for his influence on bioarchaeology, and particularly paleopathology.
Funding Information:
We are very grateful to funding from the National Science Foundation ( BCS-0202329 , SBR-9708001 ), the University of Vermont’s College of Arts and Sciences’ Dean’s Fund for Faculty Development , and the Wenner-Gren Foundation (grant 5863 ). The authors would like to especially thank the Centro de Investigaciones Arqueologicas Antropologicas y Administracion de Tiwanaku (CIAAAT), Unidad de Arqueologia y Museos (UDAM), Ministerio de Culturas y Turismo de Bolivia, Proyecto Wila Jawira, Proyecto Jach’a Marka, our project co-director, Luis Callisaya Medina, and project members Ruth Fontenla, Raquel Moscoso, Mabel Ramirez, Sara Becker, Genesis Morales, Carrie Anne Berryman, Cesar and Marta Callisaya, Delia and Aurora Medina, Anna Renzi, Gretchen Gilbert, Aubrey Brimmer, Richard Witting, and Gina Palefsky, as well as Cullen Black and Jeanne Shea who provided helpful comments on drafts of this article. We also gratefully acknowledge the assistance of technicians in the Archaeological Chemistry Laboratory, particularly Allisen Dahlstedt, and faculty and staff in the W. M. Keck Foundation Laboratory for Environmental Biogeochemistry, both at Arizona State University. We thank the editors of this special issue for their insightful and generous suggestions and their gracious understanding through every step of this process. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. Of course, any errors are ours. Finally, we are very thankful for the many contributions of Dr. John Verano, and for his influence on bioarchaeology, and particularly paleopathology.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.
PY - 2020/6
Y1 - 2020/6
N2 - In the decades since Verano (1997) published his foundational piece on Andean paleopathology, scholars have recognized the importance of the bioarchaeology of childhood. Yet, scholarship on ancient childhood in the Andes deemphasizes paleopathology. Nonadult paleopathological data are often employed in large-scale, biocultural studies focused on environmental or political adaptations; however, they can also elucidate children's individual lived experiences and roles in society. To generate culturally-meaningful paleopathological data, we must take a contextualized approach to our analyses and interpretations. Disparate use of chronological age in published datasets makes synthesis across studies problematic, and ethnohistorical and ethnographic data on Andean children demonstrate that developmental age categories, rather than chronological age ranges, are most appropriate. Further, paleopathological data can best inform our investigations when they are combined with related datasets such as those on sex, diet, activity, and mobility. With that in mind, we use the theoretical framework of “local biologies” (and the related “situated biologies”), where biology is viewed as heavily contingent on culturally-specific beliefs and practices and local physical, sociocultural, and political environments (Lock, 1993, 2001; Niewöhner and Lock, 2018). Local biologies approaches can enrich social bioarchaeology and paleopathology to by specifically situating children and their experiences within the ancient Andean world.
AB - In the decades since Verano (1997) published his foundational piece on Andean paleopathology, scholars have recognized the importance of the bioarchaeology of childhood. Yet, scholarship on ancient childhood in the Andes deemphasizes paleopathology. Nonadult paleopathological data are often employed in large-scale, biocultural studies focused on environmental or political adaptations; however, they can also elucidate children's individual lived experiences and roles in society. To generate culturally-meaningful paleopathological data, we must take a contextualized approach to our analyses and interpretations. Disparate use of chronological age in published datasets makes synthesis across studies problematic, and ethnohistorical and ethnographic data on Andean children demonstrate that developmental age categories, rather than chronological age ranges, are most appropriate. Further, paleopathological data can best inform our investigations when they are combined with related datasets such as those on sex, diet, activity, and mobility. With that in mind, we use the theoretical framework of “local biologies” (and the related “situated biologies”), where biology is viewed as heavily contingent on culturally-specific beliefs and practices and local physical, sociocultural, and political environments (Lock, 1993, 2001; Niewöhner and Lock, 2018). Local biologies approaches can enrich social bioarchaeology and paleopathology to by specifically situating children and their experiences within the ancient Andean world.
KW - Andean South America
KW - Bioarchaeology
KW - Childhood
KW - Middle Horizon
KW - Nonadults
KW - Tiwanaku
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072758378&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85072758378&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.08.004
DO - 10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.08.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 31585823
AN - SCOPUS:85072758378
SN - 1879-9817
VL - 29
SP - 65
EP - 75
JO - International Journal of Paleopathology
JF - International Journal of Paleopathology
ER -