The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology

by Vera Tiesler (Editor)

Overview

This volume brings together a range of contributors with different and hybrid academic backgrounds to explore, through bioarchaeology, the past human experience in the territories that span Mesoamerica.

This handbook provides systematic bioarchaeological coverage of skeletal research in the ancient Mesoamericas. It offers an integrated collection of engrained, bioculturally embedded explorations of relevant and timely topics, such as population shifts, lifestyles, body concepts, beauty, gender, health, foodways, social inequality, and violence. The additional treatment of new methodologies, local cultural settings, and theoretic frames rounds out the scope of this handbook. The selection of 36 chapter contributions invites readers to engage with the human condition in ancient and not-so-ancient Mesoamerica and beyond.

The Routledge Handbook of Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology is addressed to an audience of Mesoamericanists, students, and researchers in bioarchaeology and related fields. It serves as a comprehensive reference for courses on Mesoamerica, bioarchaeology, and Native American studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032266541
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/29/2024
Pages:	770
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Vera Tiesler is Research Professor at the Mexican Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán, in Mérida, where she heads the Laboratory of Bioarchaeology. She received her BA in art history from Tulane University, an MA in archaeology at the Mexican Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH), and a PhD in anthropology at the National University of Mexico (UNAM), with five accredited years of medical school (MHH, Hannover, Germany, and IPN, Mexico). Tiesler’s academic interest lies in illuminating the human condition of the ancient Maya and of past society in general.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

Vera Tiesler

Part I: FRAMING MESOAMERICAN BIOARCHAEOLOGY

1.1. The Early Days of Mesoamerican Osteology

Andrew K. Scherer

1.2. Management and Conservation of Human Remains From Mesoamerica: Ethical, Legal, and Technical Recommendations

Maria del Carmen Lerma Gómez and Juan Manuel Argüelles San Milán

1.3. The Preceramic Skeletal Record of Mexico and Central America

James C. Chatters, Joaquín Arroyo-Cabrales, and Pilar Luna-Erreguerena

1.4. North of Mesoamerica: Bioarchaeology of the Northwest, North-Central, and Northeast

Patricia Olga Hernández Espinoza and James T. Watson

1.5. Bioarchaeological Studies in the Southern Periphery of Mesoamerica

Shintaro Suzuki

Part II: ACROSS THE HUMAN LANDSCAPES OF PRE-COLUMBIAN MESOAMERICA

2.1. The Bioarchaeology of Preclassic Mesoamerica and the Advent of Statehood

Mónica Rodríguez Pérez

2.2. Bioarchaeology of Oaxaca: Major Developments in the Study of 3500 years of Mortuary Practice in Southern Mexico

Ricardo Higelin Ponce de León and Guy David Hepp

2.3. Maya Bioarchaeology

Andrew K. Scherer and Joshua T. Schnell

2.4. The People of the Southern Central Region of Veracruz

Carlos Serrano Sánchez and Mireya Montiel Mendoza

2.5. The Bioarchaeology of the Central Highlands of Mesoamerica From the Early Classic Period Through the Toltec Period

Emily J. Kate and Meggan Bullock

2.6. The Heartland of the Empire: Studying the Aztecs

Ximena Chávez Balderas, Diana K. Moreiras Reynaga, and Diana Bustos Ríos

Part III: THE BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF CITIES, NEIGHBORHOODS, AND COMMUNITIES

3.1. The Inhabitants of Monte Albán: A Bioarchaeological Approach

Lourdes Márquez Morfín and Aurora Marcela Pérez-Flórez

3.2. The Multiethnic Population of a Teotihuacan Neighborhood Center: Bioarchaeological, Archaeometric, and Ancient DNA Analyses

Linda R. Manzanilla-Naim

3.3. The Community of Xcambó, a Classic-Period Maya Port in the Yucatan Peninsula

Thelma Sierra Sosa, Allan Ortega-Muñoz, and Andrea Cucina

3.4. Bioarchaeology in Copán, Honduras: Spearheading Maya Bioarchaeology

Shintaro Suzuki and T. Douglas Price

Part IV: THE BODY AS A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT

4.1. The Bioarchaeology of Permanent Body Modifications in Mesoamerica

Vera Tiesler

4.2. Royal Bodies: The Life Histories of Janaab’ Pakal and The "Red Queen" of Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico

Erik Velásquez García and Vera Tiesler

4.3. Archaeothanatology: A Body-Anchored Approach to Mesoamerican Mortuary Analyses

Grégory Pereira and Hemmamuthé Goudiaby

4.4. The Bioarchaeology of Ritualized Violence and Posthumous Treatments of the Human Body in Mesoamerica

Judith Ruiz González and Vera Tiesler

Part V: LIFE STYLE, DIET, AND HEALTH

5.1. Mesoamerican Paleopathology: A Bioarchaeological Approach to Diseases From the Past

Raúl López Pérez

5.2. Living Conditions, Gender, and Stature

Marie Elaine Danforth, Jaime Thomas, and Peter Mercier

5.3. Geographic Variation in Mesoamerican Paleodiets: A Review of Recent Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotopic Analyses

Victoria S. R. Izzo, Lori E. Wright, and Alex Canterbury

Part VI: POPULATION AND MOBILITY

6.1. Population Continuity and Mobility Across Mesoamerica

Cathy Willermet, Corey S. Ragsdale, and Heather J.H. Edgar

6.2. Baseline Strontium Isotope Ratios in Mesoamerica

T. Douglas Price and Carolyn Freiwald

6.3. The Paleo-DNA of Ancient Mesoamerican Peoples

Víctor Acuña Alonzo and Miguel Angel Contreras Sieck

6.4. Population Structure, Fertility, and Growth

Allan Ortega Muñoz and Patricia Olga Hernández-Espinoza

6.5. The Craniometry of Mesoamerican Population Distances

Jorge A. Gómez-Valdés

Part VII: BREAKING NEW GROUNDS IN METHODOLOGY

7.1. 3D Digitization and Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains for Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology

Gabriel Wrobel

7.2. Methods in Bioarchaeology: What’s New in Profiling an Individual Inside and Out

Carolyn Freiwald, Jonathan Belanich, and Asta Rand

7.3. Histomorphology of Un-Decalcified Bone in Mesoamerican Bioarchaeology

Corey Maggiano and Isabel Maggiano

7.4. The Phenomenon of Mummification in Ancient Mexico

Josefina Mansilla Lory and Ilán S. Leboreiro Reyna

Part VIII: THE BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF THE THRESHOLDS OF MODERNITY: LEARNING FROM THE PAST TO MEET TODAY'S CHALLENGES

8.1. The Bioarchaeology of Colonial New Spain

Julie K. Wesp

8.2. The Serdán Brothers: Reconstructing the Mortuary Trajectory of the Three Heroes of the Mexican Revolution

Luisa Mainou Cervantes and Jorge A. Gómez Valdés

8.3. General Trends in Size in Maya Populations of the Yucatan Peninsula From the Preclassic to the 2010s: A Diachronic Perspective From Human EcologyHugo Azcorra, Saul Chay Vela, Oana del Castillo Chávez, and Federico Dickinson Bannack

8.4. Making Research of Human Reference Collections Available to Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology

Julio Roberto Chi Keb, Antinea Menéndez Garmendia, Gabriela Sánchez-Mejorada, and Jorge Gómez-Valdés