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Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals

Online ISBN:
9781683404705
Print ISBN:
9781683404453
Publisher:
University Press of Florida
Book

Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals

Gabriel D. Wrobel (ed.),
Gabriel D. Wrobel
(ed.)
Michigan State University
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Andrea Cucina (ed.)
Andrea Cucina
(ed.)
UNIVERSIDAD AUTÓNOMA DE YUCATÁN
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Published online:
23 January 2025
Published in print:
23 July 2024
Online ISBN:
9781683404705
Print ISBN:
9781683404453
Publisher:
University Press of Florida

Abstract

The term osteobiography is generally defined by a focus on individuals: the utilization of available data from a skeleton and its surroundings to reconstruct how a complex web of factors interacted to shape an individual’s body, life experiences, and, often, their lingering influence within the community after death. The individualized, context-rich Osteobiography approach acknowledges the unique nature of individuals’ experiences and is increasingly recognized as a significant instrument in bioarchaeology, providing important complementary perspectives on population-level analyses. This volume brings together bioarchaeologists from the Maya region and greater Mesoamerica, covering 5,000 years of history spanning the Archaic to Colonial periods. Following a review of the history of osteobiographical analysis in Mesoamerica, each chapter presents a story of the lives and deaths of individuals carefully reconstructed using skeletal data, associated archaeological context, ethnographic and ethnohistoric analogy, and ancient written and artistic records. The broad range of narrative forms used by different authors demonstrates the flexibility of the Osteobiography approach, as well as its potential to appeal to a wide range of audiences. The volume concludes with a discussion outlining major global themes in osteobiography and suggestions for future directions.

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