Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals
Mesoamerican Osteobiographies: Revealing the Lives and Deaths of Ancient Individuals
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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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Front Matter
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1
Osteobiographies in Mesoamerica: Their History and Scope
Gabriel D. Wrobel andAndrea Cucina
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Section 1 Ordinary Individuals
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2
The Man of Macabilero: An Osteobiography of Perseverance
Andrew K. Scherer and others
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3
Life into Old Age: A Female Forager-Horticulturalist from the Middle Holocene in Belize
Emily Moes and others
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4
Life and Death of a Middle Preclassic Individual from Aguada Fénix, Tabasco, Mexico
Shintaro Suzuki and others
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5
Colonial Lifeways and Childhood Revealed through Osteobiographic Analysis at Cahal Pech, Belize
Kirsten Green Mink and others
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6
Daily Life at the Border: Utilizing Osteobiography to Create Imagined Narratives of Two Colonists from the Villa de Salamanca de Bacalar
Allan Ortega-Muñoz
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7
Life on the Colonial Frontier: A Maya Osteobiography from Tipu, Belize
Amy L. Hair and others
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2
The Man of Macabilero: An Osteobiography of Perseverance
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Section 2 Social Roles in Life
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8
Osteobiography of a Postclassic Maya Shaman/Priest: The “Guardian of Maay” from San Miguelito, Quintana Roo
Andrea Cucina and others
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9
A Teotihuacano in Monte Alban: Life History in a Domestic Group from an Osteobiographic Approach
Lourdes Márquez Morfín and others
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10
Walking in the Mayab Land: The Life History of a Merchant from Caucel, Yucatan
Mónica Rodríguez Pérez and others
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11
A Young Man, an Old Ritual, and Maya Ethnoscience
Della Collins Cook
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8
Osteobiography of a Postclassic Maya Shaman/Priest: The “Guardian of Maay” from San Miguelito, Quintana Roo
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Section 3 Distinguished in Death: Postmortem Social Roles
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12
Making a Place for Ancestors at Actuncan, Belize: An Osteobiography of a Maya Burial Ground
Carolyn Freiwald and others
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13
Death and Remembrance in Central Belize: An Osteobiography
Gabriel D. Wrobel and others
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14
A Pilgrimage of Bones: Using Osteobiography to Understand Rockshelter Use along a Maya Ritual Circuit in Central Belize
Samantha H. Blatt and others
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15
Recycling Souls and Age-Fluid Ancestors: Osteobiographic Evidence from the Pre-Columbian Maya of Northwestern Belize
Pamela L. Geller
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16
Venerated Youth: Age at Death and Ancestral Status at the Chan Site, Belize
Anna C. Novotny
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17
Human Bones Converted into Artifacts at Teotihuacan
Abigail Meza-Peñaloza and others
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12
Making a Place for Ancestors at Actuncan, Belize: An Osteobiography of a Maya Burial Ground
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Section 4 Impairment and Care
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Section 5 Forensic Biohistory
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20
Tying the Knot between the Maya Ruler Janaab’ Pakal and Lady Tz’akab’ Ajaw: A Family Osteobiography from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
Vera Tiesler andErik Velásquez García
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21
An Osteobiographic Narrative of Copan’s Early Royal Dynasty
Jane E. Buikstra and others
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22
Osteobiography: The Next Generation
John Robb
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20
Tying the Knot between the Maya Ruler Janaab’ Pakal and Lady Tz’akab’ Ajaw: A Family Osteobiography from Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico
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End Matter
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