21st Century Bioarchaeology: Challenges and Opportunities

Over the past 40 years, Bioarchaeology has emerged as an interdisciplinary research domain dedicated to exploring the lives of past peoples. In this presentation, I briefly consider our history in the context of "the bioarchaeologies," distinctive approaches that signal vitality and longterm viability for this dynamic field. In commenting upon the depth and breadth of bioarchaeology in the 21st century, I consider the challenges posed in melding social and evolutionary theories, as well as the complementary paradigms that focus upon communities and individuals (osteobiographies). Biodistance, an early bioarchaeological endeavor and for too long a symbol of the "old" physical anthropology, is now a reinvigorated 21st century focus that has benefitted from recent statistical, technological, and theoretical advances. Paleodemography continues to be vexed by issues raised by Wood et al's "Osteological Paradox," although the subject has been strengthened immeasurably by the critique. Global vs. local approaches to interpreting "health" in the past are critically reviewed, as are inherent definitional and methodological issues. Bone chemistry and biomolecular methods for the study of diet, residence, and ancestry will continue to be refined, but they will only be as robust as the significant questions they address. Paleopathology, in considering the history of human disease must also face the greater challenge of sophisticated co-evolutionary modeling. In closing, I discuss the importance of a continued relationship between bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology, as well as the significance of an emphasis upon outreach, education, and transdisciplinarity.

Speaker: Jane Buikstra, Arizona State University