Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People (ePub)

Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People amplifies the echoes of voices of previously marginalized or powerless individuals. Archaeological investigations have generally taken a top-down approach to exploring the past, trying to reconstruct individual lives through datasets concerning populations. Following previous work done by physical anthropologists on the biology of poverty, this volume will focus on the voices of past actors who would normally be subsumed within a cohort or whose stories represented the minority, rather than the majority. By focusing on previously excluded voices this volume will enrich our understanding of the lived experience of individuals in the past. Contributors to this volume will highlight the histories and stories of individuals who did not record their own stories, investigate two disparate ancient Egyptian women and discuss five individuals (including an infant) recovered from a high status indigenous cemetery in British Columbia. Additional chapters examine the marginalized individuals whose bodies comprise the Terry and Hamann-Todd collections and investigate inequalities in health status of individuals in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Modern clinical population health is researched through a historical lens, bringing a new perspective to the critical public health interventions occurring today. Finally, the editors will weave together themes identified in the chapters, including loss of identity, marginalization of the stigmatized, and the biology of poverty, with a look to future bioarchaeological and anthropological investigations of these topics.Highlights the histories and stories of individuals whose voices were silenced, such as workhouse inmates, migrants, those of low socioeconomic status, the chronically ill, and those living in communities without a written languageProvides a holistic and more complete understanding of the lived experiences of the past, as well as changes in populations through timeOffers an interdisciplinary discussion with contributions from a wide variety of international authors