Tracing Childhood: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Early Lives in Antiquity

Foreword

Foreword Anthropology is the only social science to encompass the study of all people , in all places, and in all times. Yet even in its broadly holistic and comparative view of humanity, children and childhood have not been part of the discipline’s comprehensive perspective on our species. A central reason for the marginalization of the juvenile record, past and present, is that children have been perceived as not being especially important players in society . Bioarchaeologists have long recognized the considerable importance of juvenile skeletal remains in understanding past populations, mostly for interpreting health and well-being (Halcrow and Tayles 2011; Larsen 1999; Lewis 2007). From the study of patterns of growth and development, physiological stress, and chronic illness, juvenile skeletons present considerable insights into human adaptive challenges and transitions. Moreover, health conditions in the juvenile years—especially in infancy—predict quality of life and mortality in adulthood (Armelagos et al. 2009). The contributors to this volume make clear that in addition to the rich reservoir of biological data from human remains representing the physical lives of people, when viewed in ethnographic, bioarchaeological, and archaeological contexts, juvenile remains provide an extraordinarily broad record for addressing hypotheses and answering questions about the roles of children in society. Simply, juvenile remains recovered from archaeological contexts give a rich perspective on the links between biology and society. The contributors to this book focus on children not as passive players but rather as central to understanding social behavior. The chapters demonstrate fundamental insights into identity and personhood; variation in how children are treated; and experiences of growing up, such as who may or may not be included in sacrifice, who is subject to abuse and poor treatment before and after death, and health outcomes for those whose life experiences were positive and for those whose life experiences were negative. xii · Foreword This book joins a new and exciting body of bioarchaeological scholarship emphasizing childhood and the interplay between society and biology. Once invisible, childhood now takes a central place in the archaeological record in reconstructing and interpreting the physical and social lives of children in the past, in all places and in all times. Clark Spencer Larsen Series Editor Reference List Armelagos, G. J., A. H. Goodman, K. N. Harper, and M. L. Blakey. 2009. Enamel Hypoplasia and Early Mortality: Bioarcheological Support for the Barker Hypothesis. Evolutionary Anthropology 18: 261–71. Halcrow, S. E., and N. Tayles. 2011. The Bioarchaeological Investigation of Children and Childhood. In Social Bioarchaeology, ed. S. C. Agarwal and B. Glencross, 333–60. Wiley -Blackwell, New York. Larsen, C. S. 1999. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Lewis, M. E. 2007. The Bioarchaeology of Children: Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthropology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ...