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Skeletons in Our Closet : Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeology / Clark Spencer Larsen.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2020]Copyright date: ©2000Description: 1 online resource (272 p.) : 3 line illus., 32 halftonesContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691218014
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 930.1 23
LOC classification:
  • CC77.B8
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources:
Contents:
Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION. Tales from the Dead: What Bones Tell Us about Our Past, and Why We Should Know -- CHAPTER 1. The Lives and Lifestyles of Ancient Hunter-Gatherers: "Poor, nasty, brutish and short" in the American Great Basin -- CHAPTER 2. Skeletons from Stillwater: Good Times and Bad Times -- CHAPTER 3. From Foraging to Farming: A Regional Perspective -- CHAPTER 4. Going Global: Bioarchaeology of the Foraging-to-Farming Transition -- CHAPTER 5. Europeans Arrive: Circumstances and Settings for Native Population Collapse in the Americas -- CHAPTER 6. Bioarchaeology of Population Decline and Extinction in Spanish Florida -- CHAPTER 7. Sot-Weed to Sangamo: Life and Death in Frontier North America -- CHAPTER 8. On to Sangamo Country: Colonizing the Midwest -- CHAPTER 9. Life's Transitions: The Bioarchaeological Past -- INDEX
Summary: The dead tell no tales. Or do they? In this fascinating book, Clark Spencer Larsen shows that the dead can speak to us--about their lives, and ours--through the remarkable insights of bioarchaeology, which reconstructs the lives and lifestyles of past peoples based on the study of skeletal remains. The human skeleton is an amazing storehouse of information. It records the circumstances of our growth and development as reflected in factors such as disease, stress, diet, nutrition, climate, activity, and injury. Bioarchaeologists, by combining the methods of forensic science and archaeology, along with the resources of many other disciplines (including chemistry, geology, physics, and biology), "read" the information stored in bones to understand what life was really like for our human ancestors. They are unearthing some surprises. For instance, the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago has commonly been seen as a major advancement in the course of human evolution. However, as Larsen provocatively shows, this change may not have been so positive. Compared to their hunter-gatherer ancestors, many early farmers suffered more disease, had to work harder, and endured a poorer quality of life due to poorer diets and more marginal living conditions. Moreover, the past 10,000 years have seen dramatic changes in the human physiognomy as a result of alterations in our diet and lifestyle. Some modern health problems, including obesity and chronic disease, may also have their roots in these earlier changes. Drawing on vivid accounts from his own experiences as a bioarchaeologist, Larsen guides us through some of the key developments in recent human evolution, including the adoption of agriculture, the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the biological consequences of this contact, and the settlement of the American West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Written in a lively and engaging manner, this book is for anyone interested in what the dead have to tell us about the living.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780691218014

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION. Tales from the Dead: What Bones Tell Us about Our Past, and Why We Should Know -- CHAPTER 1. The Lives and Lifestyles of Ancient Hunter-Gatherers: "Poor, nasty, brutish and short" in the American Great Basin -- CHAPTER 2. Skeletons from Stillwater: Good Times and Bad Times -- CHAPTER 3. From Foraging to Farming: A Regional Perspective -- CHAPTER 4. Going Global: Bioarchaeology of the Foraging-to-Farming Transition -- CHAPTER 5. Europeans Arrive: Circumstances and Settings for Native Population Collapse in the Americas -- CHAPTER 6. Bioarchaeology of Population Decline and Extinction in Spanish Florida -- CHAPTER 7. Sot-Weed to Sangamo: Life and Death in Frontier North America -- CHAPTER 8. On to Sangamo Country: Colonizing the Midwest -- CHAPTER 9. Life's Transitions: The Bioarchaeological Past -- INDEX

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

The dead tell no tales. Or do they? In this fascinating book, Clark Spencer Larsen shows that the dead can speak to us--about their lives, and ours--through the remarkable insights of bioarchaeology, which reconstructs the lives and lifestyles of past peoples based on the study of skeletal remains. The human skeleton is an amazing storehouse of information. It records the circumstances of our growth and development as reflected in factors such as disease, stress, diet, nutrition, climate, activity, and injury. Bioarchaeologists, by combining the methods of forensic science and archaeology, along with the resources of many other disciplines (including chemistry, geology, physics, and biology), "read" the information stored in bones to understand what life was really like for our human ancestors. They are unearthing some surprises. For instance, the shift from hunting and gathering to agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago has commonly been seen as a major advancement in the course of human evolution. However, as Larsen provocatively shows, this change may not have been so positive. Compared to their hunter-gatherer ancestors, many early farmers suffered more disease, had to work harder, and endured a poorer quality of life due to poorer diets and more marginal living conditions. Moreover, the past 10,000 years have seen dramatic changes in the human physiognomy as a result of alterations in our diet and lifestyle. Some modern health problems, including obesity and chronic disease, may also have their roots in these earlier changes. Drawing on vivid accounts from his own experiences as a bioarchaeologist, Larsen guides us through some of the key developments in recent human evolution, including the adoption of agriculture, the arrival of Europeans in the Americas and the biological consequences of this contact, and the settlement of the American West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Written in a lively and engaging manner, this book is for anyone interested in what the dead have to tell us about the living.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 27. Jan 2023)