THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY by Richard H. Steckel (Editor), Jerome C. Rose (Editor) ( 9780521617444 )

Item Details

Title:

THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY
HEALTH AND NUTRITION IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

By:

Richard H. Steckel (Editor), Jerome C. Rose (Editor)

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£49.00

Our price:

£42.88

Discount:

12.5% off

You save:

£6.12

ISBN 10:

0521617448

ISBN 13:

9780521617444

Availability:

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Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

21 March, 2005

Pages:

654

Description:

An assessment of skeletal evidence on health indicators, to assess chronic conditions that affected Western populations.

Synopsis:

For the same reasons that explorers of the early twentieth century strove to reach the poles, and their modern counterparts journey to outer space, most people want to visualize the contours of the human experience - the peaks of adaptive success that led to the expansion of civilization, and the troughs in which human presence ebbed. The Backbone of History defines the emerging field of macrobioarchaeology by gathering skeletal evidence on seven basic indicators of health to assess chronic conditions that affected individuals who lived in the Western Hemisphere from 5000 BC to the late nineteenth century. Signs of biological stress in childhood and of degeneration in joints and in teeth increased in the several millennia before the arrival of Columbus as populations moved into less healthy ecological environments. Thus, pre-Colombian Native Americans were among the healthiest and the least healthy groups to live in the Western Hemisphere before the twentieth century.

Illustrations:

64 b/w illus. 18 maps 140 tables

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

Returns:

Returnable

Some other items by this author:

A POPULATION HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA (HB)

HEALTH AND WELFARE DURING INDUSTRIALIZATION (HB)

THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY

THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY (HB)