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BONE RESEARCH.   Term Paper ID:19885 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Background, characteristics, purpose, prehistoric human bones, benefits, findings.... More...

6 Pages / 1350 Words 6 sources, 18 Citations, APA Format $24.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Background, characteristics, purpose, prehistoric human bones, benefits, findings. Paper Introduction: The study of human skeletal remains recovered from archeological sites provides a valuable source of information about prehistory from many different perspectives due mainly to the fact that bone is a living organism that continuously responds to environmental stresses. Osteologists and physical anthropologists have the ability to detect both cultural and physical interactions of prehistoric man through what the bones tell them with regards to growth, diseases, nutrition and wear and tear on the skeleton. Studied in conjunction with archeological data, we can now answer many questions about early man as well as isolate bits of data that can be pertinent to the human population today. The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the study of prehistoric man's bones, including a quick look at the history of Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Natural History, pp. Physical anthropologists and archaeologists have been able to study anumber of skeletal findings and collections from which to develop researchtechniques and collect data. Teeth, craniums and skeletal structures have beenavailable for in-depth study. Further, the excavation's findings have stimulated the development ofmethods for determining the sex of an adult mainly by the shape of thepelvis. (1988). Thus, it maybecome possible for the bones to tell us about the diseases people oncecontracted, which will help track the history of human diseases, even theirevolution. Culture relativism, Boas argued, was the idea that "human raceswere intrinsically equal - equally advanced and equally expressive of thecomplexities of the human spirit" (Preston, 1989, p. 13). Nubia's last Christians:The cemeteries of Kulubnarti. Preston, Douglas J. Nutrition played a doublerole in body size directly through the manufacture of the necessarybiological tissues, and indirectly through the production of essentialimmunological defenses. Teeth size have been a key element in determining cultural andphysical traits in other burial sites of ancient remains. and Armelagos, George J. The adult tooth preserves a record ofthese types of afflictions in the form of microscopic defects. "The analysis of skeletal pathology yields two important categoriesof information about disease experience in prehistoric populations"(Powell, 1988, p. David Owsley, an associate curator at the Smithsonian, argues,"Not only does this promise to revolutionize our understanding of the past,but it might prove a powerful new tool for fighting disease in our time(Preston, 1989, p. Now called "osteobiography, " thestudy of an individual's bones is all part of an expanding discipline. Three circumstances made it possible to conduct suchresearch. 422-3. 28). (1981, January/February). 17-24. Larsen, Clark Spencer. Further, the analysiswill provide an description of what kind of information is being obtainedthrough forensic science and other approaches, how this information isutilized in answering archeological questions about prehistoric lifestyleswith an added look at how bone research can yield tremendous potential formankind today. The Nubia site, discovered on the island called Kulubnarti, on thewest bank of the Nile, included such additional elements as hair, skin andinternal organs, thanks to the preservation effect of the desert climate.These findings allow experts to learn more than just the physical aspects."For example, the germs forming in the gums of an infant respond at thelevel of individual cells to fevers, infections and other physiologicalassaults" Van Gerven, 1981, p. 26). In fact, it is through these three physicalentities that most of the major secrets of ancient life are discovered.The variety of artifacts found with them have only added to the dataavailable. This is a result of the refinement of foodpreparation technology since agriculture developed and the relaxation ofselective forces that once favored large teeth for chewing rougher morselsof hunted and gathered food (p. Kennedy, Kenneth L.R. As an example, adolescents were identified according to thedevelopment of their teeth, while older individuals were classified as suchby the age-related and degenerative changes in their teeth and skeletons.Other factors studied were the effect of calcium deposits and diseasetraits among children. Special attention was paid to the bones as they were excavated. "Such skeletal differences between men and women are frequentlyaugmented by soft tissue features such as genitalia and body hair (VanGerven, 1981, p. Skeletal and dentaladaptations to the shift to agriculture on the Georgia coast. 74). Washington,D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. 23-4). 26). The reduction in postcranial size also has been studied in relationto North American Indian findings. Ever since a German anthropologist named Franz Boas came to Americain 1886 and began espousing the idea of "culture relativism," the UnitedStates has been collecting the skeletal remains, mainly of NativeAmericans. By looking at adultbody size, dental health and the skeletal pathology of the findings,correlations could be made between the physical remains and the exteriorimpacts on human life. (1989). The "Dickson Mounds,' found in west-central Illinois, offered someprofound findings among its 3, burials and several settlement sites.Specifically, "the archeological research revealed that these prehistoricpeople had taken part in an important transition, from hunting andgathering to an agricultural way of life" (Goodman and Armelagos, 1985, p.12). 22). Further, it found body size to be directly relatedto the level of childhood stresses on the body. 22-3 .----------------------- 8 66-76. Larger teeth also were important forchewing leather and as a catch-all tool. And, extracting parasites frombowel and stomach contents can reflect how architectural practices such asplacing latrines near living areas influenced the transmission of diseases(p. 1. "Thesedefects can tell us whether a man who died in his sixties was frequentlyill or even well-nurtured as an infant" (p. Studied in conjunction with archeological data, we can nowanswer many questions about early man as well as isolate bits of data thatcan be pertinent to the human population today. Skeletal biology is bringing new possibilities to archaeology andscience by allowing experts to focus on skeletal remains as historydocumented in bone, "a record of both an individual's and an entireculture's life (Kennedy, 1981, p. Status and health in prehistory. 68). A culture's socialstratification can be documented in its population's bones by differentialpatterns of skeletal growth and differing incidences of the side effects ofdisease in the lower and upper classes. 7 ). Further, minerals takenfrom hair can tell scientists the course of degenerative disease thatcrippled the aged three thousand years ago. Further, skeletal studies support the thesis that the Harappan-Indusregion had the earliest sites of advanced agricultural technology in theregion, and that it had a relatively stable agrarian population for severalthousand years before its shift to urbanization and commerce (around 5, B.C.). 18). Skeletal biology:When bones tell tales. 2. 74). 3. (1981, May/June). Dental studies of prehistoric manhave proven these theories to be true, particularly in Asia, home of theHarappan civilization. (1981, August). CurrentAnthropology, pp. With regards to dental wear, examination of the tooth surfacerevealed patterns characteristic of particular subsistence lifestyles,such as both the nature of the food consumed and the method of preparation(Powell, 1988, p. Powell, M.L. Inthe broader term it is called "palaeodemography," and is concerned withlong term biological and social changes such as community size and density;composition of groupings based on age, sexual, racial, or ethnic identity;and spatial distribution, settlement patterns and migratory behavior(Kennedy, 1981, p. The purpose of this paper will be to discuss the study of prehistoricman's bones, including a quick look at the history of bone research, areview of the principal characteristics of bones and teeth that are usedfor such research and what methodologies are used. Examples of such sites include the burialfindings of ancient Nubia, in the Kulubnarti cemeteries; the Harappancivilization of the Indus Valley; and the North American prehistoric Indianfindings. Archaeolgy, pp. Skeletons in our museums' closets.Harper's Magazine, pp. These sites have proved to be a tremendous resource of bones aswell as artifacts. "In stratified societies, higherranking individuals normally tend to attain fuller skeletal growth andphysical development, and suffer less from abnormalities caused bynutritional stress marked in bones and teeth" (Kennedy, 1981, pp. In addition, human DNA can now be isolated frommummified tissues and experts are working to isolate it fromarchaeologically retrieved bones, thus potentially enabling researchers tostudy directly the genetics of ancient populations. Further, age of death was determined as the result ofa series of developmental criteria, with teeth being the primary agingfactor. 22). 423). While the effects on each body part has beendescribed in some detail above, scientists made additional findings. 72-3). Skeletal biology of these remains have also pointed toward theprevalence of a strict social organization. References Goodman, Alan H. In recent years these same remains have become much more valuable toresearchers for different reasons. 18). The population was genetically stable (Goodman and Armelagos, 1985, p. First, the analysis showed the effects of certainpathological conditions upon mortality distributions; and, second, itrevealed the historical geographical distributions of specific disease(Powell, 1988, p. Biomedical experts have been developingtechniques to extract certain proteins called immunoglobulins from humanbones that are generated to fight off disease and that remain in the bonesin trace amounts long after death (Preston, 1989, pp. Experts then broke out the different cultural and biological factorsthat effect human health as well as environmental stress-related elementsfound among the Native Americans of middle America. 73). The remains included individuals who lived before the development of agriculture as well as those who practiced farming. Osteologistsand physical anthropologists have the ability to detect both cultural andphysical interactions of prehistoric man through what the bones tell themwith regards to growth, diseases, nutrition and wear and tear on theskeleton. 12-18. Thus, even thesmallest of tribes held important keys to man's development and bymeasuring bones, experts have been able to answer important questions aboutthe origin and spread of human beings across the New World and therelationships between various races. By providing a mortality sample, this type of studygenerates information unlike impossible for living populations. The study of human skeletal remains recovered from archeologicalsites provides a valuable source of information about prehistory from manydifferent perspectives due mainly to the fact that bone is a livingorganism that continuously responds to environmental stresses. Experts now believe that this reductionis related to change in function stemming from a decrease in mechanicalstress and an increase in nutritional stress brought on by a shift toagrarian society and the decrease in protein intact and increase in dietarycarbohydrates (Larsen, 1981, p. Van Gerven, Dennis P. (1985, September).Disease and death at Dr. Dickson's mounds. 26). "Since thePleistocene period when our ancestors had relatively large teeth, the sizeof human teeth has been steadily diminishing for the past 5, years"(Kennedy, 1981, p. Archaeolgy, pp. Such a finding, initially supported by the corresponding artifacts,offers the opportunity to see how such a change directly effected man on aphysical level. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.