Behavior in our Bones: How Human Behavior Influences Skeletal Morphology
Author(s): Hirst (Editor), Gilmour (Editor), Cardoso (Editor), Plomp (Editor)
- Publisher: Elsevier
- Publication Date: 27 Jan. 2023
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 328 pages
- ISBN-10: 0128213833
- ISBN-13: 9780128213834
Book Description
Exploring behaviour through bones has always been a fascinating topic to those that study human remains. Human bodies record and store vast amounts of information about the way we move, where we live, and our experiences of health and socioeconomic circumstances. We see it every day, and experience it, but when it comes to past populations, understanding behaviour is largely mediated by our ability to read it in bones. Behaviour in Our Bones: How Human Behaviour Influences Skeletal Morphology examines how human physical and cultural actions and interactions can be read through careful analyses of skeletal human remains.
This book synthesises the latest research on reconstructing behaviour in the past. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific region of the human body, guiding the reader from head to toe and highlighting how evidence found on the skull, shoulder, thorax, spine, pelvis, and the upper and lower limbs has been used to infer patterns of activity and other behaviour. Chapter authors expertly summarise and critically discuss a range of methodological, theoretical, and interpretive approaches used to read skeletal remains and interpret a wide variety of behaviours, including tool use, locomotion, reproduction, health, pathology, and beyond.
Editorial Reviews
Review
"This volume, edited and written by archeologists, biologists, and anthropologists, examines the most recent research on how behavior affects bone morphology largely through the action of biomechanical forces imposed by movement on skeletal structures.... [It's] helpful to those of us who teach about bones, study bones, or are generally interested in phenotype construction.... The chapters are generally well written, and synthesize research that includes the use of modern techniques to answer questions related to our evolutionary past, and many have a forward-looking section with potential new avenues of research, as well as some pitfalls of current approaches.... Each chapter draws from examples where inferences can be made about the societal situation or profession of individuals whose bony remains offer insights into ancient human cultures.... this volume highlights the benefit of interdisciplinary approaches that combine evolution, anthropology, paleontology, modern kinesiology studies, pathology, and imaging techniques that can allow us to measure the intraindividual variation in bone morphology." ― Patricia L. R. Brennan, The Quarterly Review of Biology, June 2025
Review
Takes the reader through the skeleton from cranium to phalanges, discussing morphological changes which are linked to human behavior
From the Back Cover
Exploring behaviour through bones has always been a fascinating topic to those that study human remains. Human bodies record and store vast amounts of information about the way we move, where we live, and our experiences of health and socioeconomic circumstances. We see it every day, and experience it, but when it comes to past populations, understanding behaviour is largely mediated by our ability to read it in bones. Behaviour in Our Bones: How Human Behaviour Influences Skeletal Morphology examines how human physical and cultural actions and interactions can be read through careful analyses of skeletal human remains.
This book synthesises the latest research on reconstructing behaviour in the past. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific region of the human body, guiding the reader from head to toe and highlighting how evidence found on the skull, shoulder, thorax, spine, pelvis, and the upper and lower limbs has been used to infer patterns of activity and other behaviour. Chapter authors expertly summarise and critically discuss a range of methodological, theoretical, and interpretive approaches used to read skeletal remains and interpret a wide variety of behaviours, including tool use, locomotion, reproduction, health, pathology, and beyond.
About the Author
Dr. Cara Hirst earned her PhD in dental and skeletal bioarchaeology from University College London. Her research focuses on bone remodelling and biomechanical alterations to the human skeleton and inference of behaviour and activity from skeletal morphology. While her specialty is 3D geometric morphometrics and human mandibular morphology, she is interested in a range of methods and behaviours that may be inferred from skeletal morphology. She has presented at numerous conferences and published research papers and chapters for edited books.
Dr. Rebecca Gilmour received her PhD from McMaster University in 2017. She is Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology at the Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Department of Sociology and Anthropology). She specialises in bioarchaeology, palaeopathology, and biomechanical analyses of the human skeleton and her research brings together studies of behaviour and activity with those of health and disease. Recently, she has focussed on investigating the long-term consequences of trauma in human skeletal remains. Through her work, she seeks to improve how we understand past and present human resilience, risk, impairment, and adaptation.
Dr. Francisca Alves Cardoso received her PhD from Durham University in 2008. She is Senior Research Fellow and Coordinator of the Laboratory of Biological Anthropology and Human Osteology at CRIA – Centre for Research in Anthropology in Portugal and Invited Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. Her research focuses on how skeletal biology is used to comprehend and reconstruct past human health and wealth, and how social and cultural constructs may be perceived by the analysis of human remains. In recent years she has also explored ethical issues related to the study/use of skeletal biology and human skeletonised remains in science, technology, and humanities and its impact in society.
Dr. Kimberly Plomp received her PhD from Durham University in 2013. She is Associate Professor and Head of the Human Osteoarchaeology Laboratory in the School of Archaeology, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, Manila, Philippines. Her research interests are broad and encompass many topics related to biological anthropology, such as bioarchaeology, palaeopathology, evolutionary medicine, functional anatomy, and human evolution. Currently, her projects focus on identifying evolutionary explanations for common health problems such as back pain, osteoarthritis, and developmental conditions as well as using human shape variation to trace past dispersals and migrations.
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