Introduction
The bioarchaeology of childhood has gained traction in the past two decades, with a proliferation of research papers and new methods for investigating this subset of past populations (Halcrow and Tayles 2008; Lewis 2007; Mays et al. 2017). It is now accepted that children are so-called “canaries in the coal mine” for population stress as a whole because their developing immune system and the energy requirements of normal growth make them more susceptible to the effects of stress (Lewis 2007). It is well established that children are sensitive barometers of population fertility, mortality, stress, and infectious disease, and their study also provides insights into identity and childcare practices in archaeological populations (Larsen 2015). Similarly, research on children in the forensic context is crucial given that infants and children are often the victims of homicide and genocide (Lewis 2007). For example, in 2012, children younger than the age of 20 comprised 95,000...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Agarwal, Sabrina C. 2016. Bone morphologies and histories: Life course approaches in bioarchaeology. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 159 (S61): 130–149.
Beaumont, Julia, and Janet Montgomery. 2016. The Great Irish Famine: Identifying starvation in the tissues of victims using stable isotope analysis of bone and incremental dentine collagen. PLoS One 11 (8): e0160065.
Buikstra, Jane E. 1977. Biocultural dimensions of archaeological study: A regional perspective. In Biocultural adaptation in prehistoric America, ed. Robert L. Blakely, 67–84. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Cunningham, Craig, Louise Scheuer, and Sue Black. 2016. Developmental juvenile osteology. 2nd ed. London: Academic Press.
Goodman, Alan H., Debra L. Martin, George J. Armelagos, and George Clark. 1984. Indicators of stress from bones and teeth. In Paleopathology at the origins of agriculture, eds. Mark N. Cohen and George J. Armelagos, 13–49. New York: Academic Press.
Gowland, Rebecca L. 2015. Entangled lives: Implications of the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis for bioarchaeology and the life course. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 158 (4): 530–540.
Halcrow, Siân E., and Nancy Tayles. 2008. The bioarchaeological investigation of childhood and social age: Problems and prospects. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 15 (2): 190–215.
Halcrow, Siân E., N. Tayles, and Gail E. Elliot. 2017. The bioarchaeology of fetuses. In The anthropology of the fetus: Biology, culture, and society, eds. Sallie Han, Tracy K. Betsinger, and Amy B. Scott, 83–111. New York: Berghahn Books.
Halcrow, Siân E., Charlotte L. King, Andrew R. Millard, Anne Marie E. Snoddy, Rachel M. Scott, Gail E. Elliot, Darren R. Gröcke, Hallie R. Buckley, Vivien G. Standen, and Bernardo T. Arriaza. 2018. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings: Breastfeeding and weaning in the past. In Breastfeeding: New anthropological approaches, eds. Cecilia Tomori, Aunchalee Palmquist, and Elizabeth Quinn, 155–169. Abingdon: Routledge.
Hillson, Simon. 1996. Dental anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Humphrey, Louise. 2000. Growth studies of past populations: An overview and an example. In Human osteology in archaeology and forensic science, eds. Margaret Cox and Simon Mays, 23–38. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Katzenberg, M. Anne, D. Ann Herring, and Shelley R. Saunders. 1996. Weaning and infant mortality: Evaluating the skeletal evidence. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 101 (S23): 177–199.
Larsen, Clark S. 2015. Bioarchaeology: Interpreting behaviour from the human skeleton. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, Mary E. 2007. The bioarchaeology of children: Perspectives from biological and forensic anthropology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Lewis, Mary E. 2014. Sticks and stones: Exploring the nature and significance of child trauma in the past. In The Routledge handbook of the bioarchaeology of conflict, eds. Chistopher Knüsel and Martin J. Smith, 39–64. London: Routledge.
Lewis, Mary E. 2018. Paleopathology of children: Identification of pathological conditions in the human skeletal remains of non-adults. London: Academic Press.
Lewis, Mary E., and Guy N. Rutty. 2003. The endangered child: The personal identification of children in forensic anthropology. Science & Justice 43 (4): 201–209.
Lewis, Mary E., Fiona Shapland, and Rebecca Watts. 2016. The influence of chronic conditions and the environment on pubertal development. An example from medieval England. International Journal of Paleopathology 12: 1–10.
Mays, Simon, Rebecca L. Gowland, Siân E. Halcrow, and Eileen Murphy. 2017. Child bioarchaeology: Perspectives on the last ten years. Childhood in the Past: An international journal 10 (1): 38–56.
Murphy, Eileen, and Mélie Le Roy, eds. 2017. Children, death and burial: Archaeological discourses, Childhood in the past. Vol. 5. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Newman, Sophie L., and Rebecca L. Gowland. 2015. The use of non-adult vertebral dimensions as indicators of growth disruption and non-specific health stress in skeletal populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 158 (1): 155–164.
Ross, Ann H., and Suzanne M. Abel, eds. 2011. The juvenile skeleton in forensic abuse investigations. New York: Humana Press.
Schaefer, Maureen, Nicole Geske, and Craig Cunnigham. 2017. A decade of development in juvenile aging. In New perspectives in forensic human skeletal identification, ed. Krista Latham, Eric J. Bartelink, and Michael Finnegan, 45–60. London: Elsevier Academic Press.
Ubelaker, D.H. 1989. Human skeletal remains: Excavation, analysis, interpretation, Manuals on archaeology. Washington, DC: Taraxacum. Original edition, 1978.
UNICEF. 2014. Hidden in plain sight: A statistical analysis of violence against children. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund.
Further Reading
Ardren, Traci, and Scott R. Hutson, eds. 2006. The social experience of childhood in ancient Mesoamerica. Boulder: University Press of Colorado.
Baker, Brenda J., Tosha L. Dupras, Matthew W. Tocheri, and Sandra M. Wheeler. 2005. The osteology of infants and children. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.
Baxter, Jane E. 2005. The archaeology of childhood: Children, gender, and material culture. Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press.
Beauchesne, Patrick, and Sabrina Agarwal, eds. 2018. Children and childhood in bioarchaeology. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Cosçkunsu, Güner, ed. 2015. The archaeology of childhood: Interdisciplinary perspectives on an archaeological enigma. New York: State University of New York Press.
DeWitte, Sharon N., and Chistopher M. Stojanowski. 2015. The osteological paradox 20 years later: Past perspectives, future directions. Journal of Archaeological Research 23 (4): 397–450.
Halcrow, Siân E., and Nancy Tayles. 2011. The bioarchaeological investigation of children and childhood. In Social bioarchaeology, eds. S.C. Agarwal and B.A. Glencross, 333–360. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Halcrow, Siân E., and Stacey M. Ward. 2017. Bioarchaeology of childhood. In Oxford bibliographies: Childhood studies, ed. Heather Montgomery. New York: Oxford University Press. https//:doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199791231-0178.
Kamp, Kathryn A. 2015. Children and their childhoods: Retrospectives and prospectives. Childhood in the Past: An international journal 8 (2): 161–169.
Robbins Schug, Gwen. 2011. Bioarchaeology and climate change: A view from South Asian prehistory. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Saunders, Shelley R. 2008. Juvenile skeletons and growth-related studies. In Biological anthropology of the human skeleton, eds. M. Anne Katzenberg and Shelley R. Saunders, 117–148. Chichester: Wiley-Liss.
Thompson, Jennifer L., Marta P. Alfonso-Durruty, and John J. Crandall, eds. 2014. Tracing childhood: Bioarchaeological investigations of early lives in antiquity. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Tsutaya, Takumi, and Minoru Yoneda. 2015. Reconstruction of breastfeeding and weaning practices using stable isotope and trace element analyses: A review. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 156 (S59): 2–21.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Halcrow, S.E., Ward, S.M. (2018). Children in Bioarchaeology and Forensic Anthropology. In: Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_143-2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51726-1_143-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-51726-1
eBook Packages: Springer Reference HistoryReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities