Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Bioarchaeologists Speak Out pp 1–18Cite as

Bioarchaeologists Speak Out: An Introduction

  • Chapter
  • First Online:

Part of the book series: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory ((BST))

Abstract

Through the contextualized study of archaeological human remains, bioarchaeologists have the opportunity to speak out on many current, pressing global issues uniquely equipped with a rich knowledge of the diverse past. This volume brings together scholars specializing in such issues as migration, health and diet, epidemic diseases, global warming, and social identity and conflict to explore the ways in which bioarchaeologists can more effectively communicate their research and results with nonspecialists, the popular media, and the general public. In this introductory chapter, we briefly review the opportunities and challenges associated with conveying the results of research on human skeletal remains to these entities, reviewing select examples of areas in which bioarchaeology has been particularly successful in this regard. We then turn to an examination of public perceptions of archaeology in a more general sense and review the notion of archaeology as pop culture. We introduce the subsequent chapters in this volume through identification of crosscutting themes and important take-home messages. Finally, we conclude with a section on “writing for your audience,” in which we demonstrate the need for awareness of accessibility issues when speaking out to a broader public.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD   169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

References

  • Bass, W., & Jefferson, J. (2004). Death’s acre: Inside the legendary forensic lab the body farm where the dead do tell tales. New York: Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bass, W., & Jefferson, J. (2008). Beyond the body farm: A legendary bone detective explores murders, mysteries, and the revolution in forensic science. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bertram, S. M., & Katti, M. (2013). The social biology professor: Effective strategies for social media engagement. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, 6, 22–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1977). Outline of a theory of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brossard, D., & Scheufele, D. A. (2013). Science, new media, and the public. Science, 339, 40–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buikstra, J. (1977). Biocultural dimensions of archeological study: A regional perspective. In R. Blakely (Ed.), Biocultural adaptation in prehistoric America, Southern anthropological society proceedings (Vol. 11, pp. 67–84).

    Google Scholar 

  • Buikstra, J., & Beck, L. (Eds.). (2006). Bioarchaeology: The contextual analysis of human remains. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charlier, P. (2017). When science sheds light on history: Forensic science and anthropology. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, J. G. D. (1972). Star carr: A case study in bioarchaeology. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. N., & Armelagos, G. J. (Eds.). (1984). Paleopathology and the origins of agriculture. Orlando: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. N., & Crane-Kramer, G. M. M. (2012). Ancient health: Skeletal indicators of agricultural and economic intensification. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs and steel: The fates of human societies. New York: W. W. Norton and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond, J. (2005). Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gannon, M. (2017, May 30) A tumor with teeth discovered in gothic graveyard. LiveScience.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gertcyk, O. (2017, May 22). Tied up in his grave, the strange ‘dancing skeleton’ of Ust-Ivanovka. The Siberian Times.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbens, S. (2017, October 4). Could the remains of Santa Claus be in this Turkish church? National Geographic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greshko, M. (2017, September 12). Famous viking warrior was a woman, DNA Reveals. National Geographic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hassettt, B. (2017). Built on bones: 15,000 years of Urban life and death. Bloomsbury Sigma.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holtorf, C. (2005). From Stonehenge to Las Vegas: Archaeology as popular culture. New York: Altamira.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holtorf, C. (2007). Archaeology is a brand: The meaning of archaeology in contemporary popular culture. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holtorf, C. (2008). Academic critique and the need for an open mind (a response to Kristiansen). Antiquity 82, 490–492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holtorf, C. (2017). The archaeology of time travel. In B. Petersson & C. Holtorf (Eds.), Experiencing the past in the 21st century (pp. 1–22). Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howes, L. M. (2015). A step towards increased understanding by non-scientists of expert reports: Recommendations for readability. Australian Journal of Forensic Sciences, 47, 456–468.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Howes, L. M., & Kemp, N. (2017). Discord in the communication of forensic science: Can the science of language help foster shared understanding? Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 36(1), 96–111.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. S. (2015). Death, uncertainty, and rhetoric. In C. M. Cameron, P. Kelton, & A. C. Swedlund (Eds.), Beyond germs: Native depopulations in North America, Amerind studies in anthropology (pp. 16–29). Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klaus, H. D., Harvey, A. R., & Cohen, M. N. (2017). Bones of complexity: Bioarchaeological case studies of social organization and skeletal biology. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Koff, C. (2005). The bone woman. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kristiansen, K. (2008). Should archaeology be in the service of ‘popular culture’? A theoretical and political critique of Cornelius Holtorf’s vision of archaeology. Antiquity 82(316):488–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laqueur, T. W. (2015). The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, C. (2014, August 3). Lindow man: Gruesome discovery who became ‘international celebrity’. BBC News.

    Google Scholar 

  • Manhein, M. H. (2000). The bone lady. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mann, C. C. (2005). 1491: New revelations of the Americas before Columbus. New York: Vintage Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maples, W. R., & Browning, M. (2001). Dead men do tell tales. New York: Broadway Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., & Anderson, C. P. (Eds.). (2014). Bioarchaeological and forensic perspectives on violence: How violent death is interpreted from skeletal remains. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., & Harrod, R. P. (2015). Bioarchaeological contributions to the study of violence. Yearbook Physical Anthropology, 156, 116–145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., Harrod, R. P., & Pérez, V. R. (2012). The bioarchaeology of violence. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Martin, D. L., & Tegtmeyer, C. (Eds.). (2017). Bioarchaeology of women and children in times of war: Case studies from the Americas. New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAnany, P. A., & Yoffee, N. (Eds.). (2010). Questioning collapse: Human resilience, ecological vulnerability, and the aftermath of empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyers Emery, K., & Killgrove, K. (2015). Bones, bodies and blogs: Outreach and engagement in bioarchaeology. Internet Archaeology, 39. Open Access.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, A. G. (2012). Missing & murdered: A personal adventure in forensic anthropology. Cape Town: Zebra Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murphy, M. S., & Klaus, H. D. (Eds.). (2017). Colonized bodies, worlds transformed: Toward a global bioarchaeology of contact and colonialism. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelkin, D. (1987). Selling science: How the press covers science and technology. New York: W.H. Freeman & Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker Pearson, M., Pitts, M., & Sayer, D. (2013). Changes in policy for excavating humans remains in England and Wales. In M. Geisen (Ed.), Curating human remains: Caring for the dead in the United Kingdom (pp. 147–158). Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, H. P. (2013). Gap between science and media revisited: Scientists as public communicators. PNAS, 110, 14102–14109.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Petersson, B., & Holtorf, C. (2017). Experiencing the past in the 21st century. Oxford: Archaeopress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker, S. (2011). The better angels of our nature: Why violence has declined. New York: Viking.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ramos, M., & Duganne, D. (2000). Exploring public perceptions and attitudes about archaeology. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reichs, K. (1997). Deja dead: A novel. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhine, S. (1998). Bone voyage: A journey in forensic anthropology. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robb, J. (2002). Time, and biography: Osteobiography of the Italian Neolithic life-span. In Y. Hamilakis, M. Pluciennik, & S. Tarlow (Eds.), Thinking through the body: Archaeologies of corporeality (pp. 153–171). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Robbins Schug, G. (2011). Bioarchaeology and climate change: A view from South Asian prehistory. Gainesville: University Press Florida.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Saul, F. P. (1972). The human skeletal remains of altar de sacrificios: An osteobiographic analysis, Vol. 63, no. 2, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Papers. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saul, F. P., & Saul, J. M. (1989). Osteobiography: A Maya example. In M. Y. Iscan & K. A. R. Kennedy (Eds.), Reconstruction of life from the skeleton (pp. 287–302). New York: Alan R. Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheufele, D. A. (1999). Framing as a theory of media effects. Journal of Communication, 49(1), 103–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Scheufele, D. A. (2013). Communicating science in social settings. PNAS, 110, 14040–14047.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slosson, E. E. (1924). Chats on science. New York: Century.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel, R. H., Larsen, C. S., Sciulli, P. W., & Walker, P. L. (2006). The global history of health project: Data collection codebook. Retrieved from http://global.sbs.ohio-state.edu/european_module.htm.

  • Steckel, R. H., Larsen, C. S., Sciulli, P. W., & Walker, P. L. (2009). The history of the European health project: A history of health in Europe from the late Paleolithic era to the present. Acta Universitatis Carolinae Medica, 156, 19–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel, R. H., & Rose, J. C. (2002). The backbone of history: Health and nutrition in the western hemisphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Stodder, A. L. W., & Palkovich, A. M. (2012). The bioarcheology of individuals. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Surugue, L. (2017, May 18). ‘Hunchback of Torrenueva’ unearthed in Roman cemetery in southern Spain. International Business Times.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tegtmeyer, C., & Martin, D. L. (Eds.). (2017). Broken bodies. Broken bones: Bioarchaeological and forensic approaches to violence: The accumulative effects of repeated trauma and violence. New York: Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ubelaker, D. H., & Scammell, H. (2000). Bones: A forensic detective’s casebook. New York: M. Evans and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wells, H. G. (1895). The time machine. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yin, S. (2017, August 10). Bone’s marks suggest a cannibal ritual in ancient Britain. New York Times.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, M. R. (2017). My patients were mummies. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zuckermann, M. K. (2014). Modern environments and human health: Revisiting the second epidemiological transition. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jane E. Buikstra

  2. Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA

    Katelyn L. Bolhofner

Authors
  1. Jane E. Buikstra
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Katelyn L. Bolhofner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane E. Buikstra .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jane E. Buikstra

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Buikstra, J.E., Bolhofner, K.L. (2019). Bioarchaeologists Speak Out: An Introduction. In: Buikstra, J.E. (eds) Bioarchaeologists Speak Out. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93012-1_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93012-1_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93011-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93012-1

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation