Abstract
In many ways, the current staged approach for exploring the issue of care in the past proposed in the bioarchaeology of care model can be used with any individual, from any time period and/or cultural background, regardless of their final age-at-death. Indeed, the care model can be trained on children, adults and the very old to great effect. This was demonstrated in the first published case study of Man Bac Burial 9 (MB9) (Journal of Paleopathology, 1(1):35–42; 2011), in as much as MB9’s care commenced in childhood and continued into his teens and until his death in his mid to late twenties. The question is whether the bioarchaeology of care model can be used to explore possible provision of health-related care for children when disease and its manifestations are rather less dramatic. Might this model – or an adaptation of it – be useful in exploring health-related care needs and provision for children at a population level, particularly in the contexts of elevated rates of childhood mortality and morbidity often found in prehistoric and early historic lifeways? This chapter explores this issue, focusing on behaviour within the same population that raised and cared for MB9. The value of returning to the Man Bac population is that care has already been clearly demonstrated for one severely physically disabled individual, thus establishing a capacity for caregiving among some members of this community, at least. This chapter considers whether, in a situation where skeletal evidence suggests elevated rates of subadult morbidity and mortality, this capacity for intensive levels of care provision was invested in all children.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anh, D. D., Kilgore, P. E., Slack, M. P. E., Nyambat, B., Tho, L. H., Yoshida, L. M., et al. (2009). Surveillance of pneumococcal-associated disease among hospitalized children in Khanh Hoa province, Vietnam. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 48(2), S57–S64.
Bernin, H., & Lotter, H. (2014). Sex bias in the outcome of human tropical infectious diseases: Influence of steroid hormones. Journal of Infectious Diseases, 209(suppl 3), S107–S113.
Cave, C., & Oxenham, M. F. (2014). Identification of the archaeological ‘invisible elderly’: An approach illustrated with an Anglo-Saxon example. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 26, 163–175.
Cernetich, A., Garver, L. S., Jedlicka, A. E., Klein, P. W., Kumar, N., Scott, A. L., et al. (2006). Involvement of gonadal steroids and gamma interferon in sex differences in response to blood-stage malaria infection. Infection and Immunity, 74(6), 3190–3203.
Chongsuphajaisiddhi, T. (1991). Malaria. In P. Stanfield, M. Brueton, M. Chan, M. Parkin, & T. Waterston (Eds.), Diseases of children in the subtropics and tropics (pp. 657–674). Kent: E. Arnold.
Crawford, S. (1991). When do Anglo-Saxon children count? Journal of Theoretical Archaeology, 2, 17–24.
Davis-Floyd, R. E., & Sargent, C. F. (1997). Childbirth and authoritative knowledge: Cross-cultural perspectives. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Domett, K. M., & Oxenham, M. F. (2011). The demographic profile of the Man Bac cemetery sample. In M. Oxenham, H. Matsumura, & N. K. Dung (Eds.), Man Bac: The excavation of a Neolithic site in Northern Vietnam. The biology (Vol. 33, pp. 9–20). Canberra: ANU Epress.
Erhart, A., Thang, N. D., Van Ky, P., Tinh, T. T., Van Overmeir, C., Speybroeck, N., et al. (2005). Epidemiology of forest malaria in central Vietnam: A large scale cross-sectional survey. Malaria Journal, 4(1), 58.
Filippini, N. M. (1993). The Church, the State and childbirth: The midwife in Italy during the eighteenth century. In H. Marland (Ed.), The art of Midwifery: Early modern midwives in Europe (pp. 152–175). London: Routledge.
Gray, S. J. (1996). Ecology of weaning among nomadic Turkana pastoralists of Kenya: Maternal thinking, maternal behavior, and human adaptive strategies. Human Biology, 68(3), 437–465.
Isenbarger, D. W., Hien, B. T., Ha, H. T., Ha, T. T., Bodhidatta, L., Pang, L. W., et al. (2001). Prospective study of the incidence of diarrhoea and prevalence of bacterial pathogens in a cohort of Vietnamese children along the Red river. Epidemiology and Infection, 127(02), 229–236.
Klein, P. W., Easterbrook, J. D., Lalime, E. N., & Klein, S. L. (2008). Estrogen and progesterone affect responses to malaria infection in female C57BL/6 mice. Gender Medicine, 5(4), 423–433.
Le, H. T., Brouwer, I. D., Verhoef, H., Nguyen, K. C., & Kok, F. J. (2007). Anemia and intestinal parasite infection in school children in rural Vietnam. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 16(4), 716–723.
Leung, A. Y. (2006). Traditional toxicity documentation of Chinese Materia Medica: An overview. Toxicologic Pathology, 34, 319–326.
Lozano, R., Naghavi, M., Foreman, K., Lim, S., Shibuya, K., Aboyans, V., et al. (2012). Global and regional mortality from 235 causes of death for 20 age groups in 1990 and 2010: A systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. The Lancet, 380(9859), 2095–2128.
Lukacs, J. R. (2008). Fertility and agriculture accentuate sex differences in dental caries rates. Current Anthropology, 49(5), 901–914.
Lukacs, J. R., & Largaespada, L. L. (2006). Explaining sex differences in dental caries prevalence: Saliva, hormones, and ‘life-history’ etiologies. American Journal of Human Biology, 18(4), 540–555.
Marland, H. (1993). Introduction. In H. Marland (Ed.), The art of Midwifery: Early modern midwives in Europe (pp. 1–8). London: Routledge.
Matsumoto, T., Itoh, N., Inoue, S., & Nakamura, M. (2015). An observation of a severely disabled infant chimpanzee in the wild and her interactions with her mother. Primates, 57(1), 3–7.
McDonnell, A., & Oxenham, M. F. (2014). Localised primary canine hypoplasia: Implications for maternal and infant health at Man Bac, Vietnam, 3500-4000 years BP. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 22, 235–244.
Meehan, C. L., & Roulette, J. W. (2013). Early supplementary feeding among central African foragers and farmers: A biocultural approach. Social Science and Medicine, 96, 112–120.
Needham, C., Thi Kim, H., Viet Hoa, N., Dinh Cong, L., Michael, E., Drake, L., et al. (1998). Epidemiology of soil-transmitted nematode infections in Ha Nam Province, Vietnam. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 3(11), 904–912.
Nguyen, V. D. (2004). Fish-borne trematodes in Vietnam. Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 35, 299–301.
Nguyen, V. D., Murrell, K. D., Le, D. C., Phung, D. C., Le, V. C., Nguyen, D. T., et al. (2003). The food-borne trematode zoonoses of Vietnam. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 34(Suppl 1), 12–34.
Nguyen, P. H., Nguyen, K. C., Le Mai, B., Nguyen, T. V., Ha, K. H., Bern, C., et al. (2006). Risk factors for anemia in Vietnam. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 37(6), 1213–1223.
Oxenham, M. F. (2001). Health and behaviour during the Mid-Holocene and Metal period of Northern Vietnam. Ph.D. Thesis, Northern Territory University.
Oxenham, M. F. (2012). Kids through adult eyes: The bioarchaeology of children. The SAA Archaeological Record, 12(2), 35–37.
Oxenham, M. F., & Buckley, H. R. (2016). Meta-themes in the bioarchaeology of the Asia pacific region. In M. F. Oxenham & H. Buckley (Eds.), The routledge handbook of bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific (pp. 655–662). London: Routledge.
Oxenham, M. F., & Domett, K. (2011). Palaeohealth at Man Bac. In M. Oxenham, H. Matsumura, & N. K. Dung (Eds.), Man Bac: The excavation of a Neolithic site in Northern Vietnam. The biology (Vol. 33, pp. 77–93). Canberra: ANU Epress.
Oxenham, M. F., Matsumura, H., Domett, K., Nguyen, K. T., Nguyen, K. D., Nguyen, L. C., et al. (2008). Health and the experience of childhood in late Neolithic Vietnam. Asian Perspectives, 47(2), 190–209.
Oxenham, M. F., Matsumura, H., & Nguyen, K. D. (2011). Man Bac: The excavation of a Neolithic site in Northern Vietnam. The biology. Canberra: ANU Press.
Oxenham, M. F., Tilley, L., Matsumura, H., Nguyen, L. C., Nguyen, K. T., Nguyen, K. D., et al. (2009). Paralysis and severe disability requiring intensive care in Neolithic Asia. Anthropological Science, 117(2), 107–112.
Phan, V. T., Ersbøll, A. K., Do, D. T., & Dalsgaard, A. (2010). Raw-fish-eating behavior and fishborne zoonotic trematode infection in people of Northern Vietnam. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, 8(2), 255–260.
Reubin, R. (1992). Women and malaria. In P. Wijeyaratne, E. M. Rathgeber, & E. St-Onge (Eds.), Women and tropical diseases (pp. 41–53). Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.
Riddle, J. M. (1992). Contraception and abortion from the ancient world to the renaissance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Ross, K. W., & Oxenham, M. F. (2016). To follow in their footsteps: An examination of the burial identity of the elderly from Non Nok Tha. In M. F. Oxenham & H. Buckley (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the pacific (pp. 187–219). London: Routledge.
Scrimshaw, S. C. M. (1984). Infanticide in human populations: Societal and individual concerns. In G. Hausfater & S. B. Hrdy (Eds.), Infanticide: Comparative and evolutionary perspectives (pp. 439–462). New York: Aldine.
Thang, N. D., Erhart, A., Speybroeck, N., Hung, L. X., Thuan, L. K., Hung, C. T., et al. (2008). Malaria in central Vietnam: Analysis of risk factors by multivariate analysis and classification tree models. Malaria Journal, 7(1), 28.
Thompson, C. N., Phan, M. V. T., Hoang, N. V. M., Minh, P. V., Vinh, N. T., Thuy, C. T., et al. (2015). A prospective multi-center observational study of children hospitalized with diarrhoea in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 92(5), 1045–1052.
Tilley, L. (2015). Theory and practice in the bioarchaeology of care. New York: Springer.
Tilley, L., & Oxenham, M. F. (2011). Survival against the odds: Modeling the social implications of care provision to seriously disabled individuals. International Journal of Paleopathology, 1(1), 35–42.
Trang, D. T., Mølbak, K., Cam, P. D., & Dalsgaard, A. (2007). Helminth infections among people using wastewater and human excreta in peri-urban agriculture and aquaculture in Hanoi, Vietnam. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 12, 82–90.
van der Hoek, W., De, N. V., Konradsen, F., Cam, P. D., Hoa, N. T. V., Toan, N. D., et al. (2003). Current status of soil-transmitted helminths in Vietnam. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health, 34(Suppl 1), 1–11.
Verle, P., Kongs, A., De, N. V., Thieu, N. Q., Depraetere, K., Kim, H. T., et al. (2003). Prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in northern Vietnam. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 8(10), 961–964.
Vlassoff, C., & Bonilla, E. (1994). Gender-related differences in the impact of tropical diseases on women: What do we know? Journal of Biosocial Science, 26(01), 37–53.
Webb, J. (1991). Diseases of the respiratory system. In P. Stanfield, M. Brueton, M. Chan, M. Parkin, & T. Waterston (Eds.), Diseases of children in the subtropics and tropics (pp. 706–724). Kent: E. Arnold.
Wilkie, L. A. (2003). The archaeology of mothering: An African-American midwife’s tale. London: Routledge.
Willis, A. (2015). The bioarchaeology of An Sơn and Hòa Diêm: Biosocial insights into prehistoric southern Vietnam. Ph.D. Thesis, The Australian National University, Canberra.
Willis, A., & Oxenham, M. F. (2013). The neolithic demographic transition and oral health: The Southeast Asian experience. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 152(2), 197–208.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oxenham, M., Willis, A. (2017). Towards a Bioarchaeology of Care of Children. In: Tilley, L., Schrenk, A. (eds) New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39901-0_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39901-0_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-39900-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-39901-0
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)