Bioarchaeology as Anthropology
George J. Armelagos
S cientists' perceptions of their discipline clearly in-
fluence how they frame their research agenda. See-
ing bioarchaeology as anthropology profoundly affects
the problems that capture one's interest, the questions
that one seeks to answer, and the methods one uses to
resolve them. Bioarchaeology as anthropology reaffirms
a worldview that incorporates an intradisciplinary
biocultural approach with a cross-cultural perspective.
The field is committed to understanding the adaptation
and the evolution of social systems. Given the post-
processual rejection of cultural evolutionary theory, re-
jection of scientific methodology, rejection of culture
as a means of extrasomatic adaptation, rejection of
culture as a system, rejection of ecological interpre-
tations, and rejection of etic analysis (Johnson 1999),
the perspective presented in this chapter may be seen as
a defense of an earlier era of scientific anthropology.
Emotionally, a rejection of the postprocessual criticism
may feel like the best response; however, a reasoned
evaluation of the criticism and measured response is a
much more effective strategy. This strategy is reflected
in Charles and Buikstra's (2001) effective use of "miti-
gated objectivism" championed by Wylie (1992). I will
argue that bioarchaeology as anthropology, by incorpo-
rating aspects of the postprocessual and antiprocessual
critiques, has positioned itself to make new and sig-
nificant contributions to knowledge.
In this essay, I have two objectives. The first is
to discuss the development of bioarchaeology (Larsen
1987, 1997) from within anthropology at the time the
discipline espoused a four-field approach. The sec-
ond objective is to demonstrate the usefulness of an
intradisciplinary bioarchaeology in understanding
problems in contemporary human adaptation. Specifi-
cally, I will suggest how the post-Neolithic transfor-
mation may play a role in helping us understand health
problems related to diet and disease in contemporary
society.
Emory University
Bioarchaeology as Anthropology
Bioarchaeology developed by the merging of per-
spectives from skeletal biology and archaeology as the
disciplines pushed themselves out of a state of mutual
intellectual crisis. Both skeletal biology and archaeol-
ogy in the years before the 1960s were mired in a par-
ticularistic descriptive phase, and as academic disciplines
they had stagnated. Archaeology's transformation was
fueled by the development of the "new archaeology" that
focused on process rather than descriptions. The move-
ment of skeletal biology out of this quagmire was pushed
by the development of the "new physical anthropology,"
whose goal was to document the biocultural processes that
occurred as populations adapted to their environment.
Processual archaeology emphasized a functional
approach that considered culture as a system that was
the means by which a society adapted to its environment.
This model of culture was heavily indebted to the writ-
ings of Leslie A. White (1943, 1959) (Willey and Sabloff
1974:178-181). In his view of culture, technology was
the force of change in the social and ideological spheres
of the cultural system. Binford (1962) contributed the
notion that individuals participated in this system differ-
entially. The contribution of labor, exposure to risk, and
share of calories, goods, and information were not uni-
form over the population. Unfortunately, ideology was
neglected since it was thought to be beyond materialist
explanations. The goal of the "new archaeology" was to
uncover evolutionary generalizations that superseded the
previous descriptive analysis that seldom went beyond
diffusion or migration as a mechanism of cultural change.
In the attempt to construct these evolutionary generali-
zations or laws of culture, deductive models were ap-
plied with strict scientific principles to archaeological
data (Binford 1962, 1964; Binford and Binford 1968).
Even though the processual archaeologists espoused ob-
jectivity and took the position that they must be ethically
28 George J. Armelagos

neutral and not influenced by the values of contemporary cally opposing paradigms. In 1952, George Neumann
culture, the knowledge they gained would be relevant to (1952) published "Archeology and Race in the Ameri-
understanding contemporary cultural adaptation. can Indian" in James B. Griffin's influential Archeology
Throughout its early history, skeletal biology reflected of Eastern United States, which provided the methods
the anthropological fixation on race. Skeletal biology for reconstructing the culture history of Native Ameri-
contributed to this obsession with its use of craniology cans using cranial morphology. Neumann's (1954a,
to support the ranking of races (Morton 1839, 1844). This 1954b) contribution was deemed so important that it
role for skeletal biology should not be surprising given was selected for publication in the Yearbook of Physical
the anthropologists' interest in supporting the social or- Anthropology for 1952.
der. Years later, with the founding of the American Jour- At about the same time, S. L. Washburn (1951) pub-
nal of Physical Anthropology, racial typology remained lished "The New Physical Anthropology," one of the
a defining feature of the discipline and was a major fo- most influential publications of the modern era, which
cus of study. In the inaugural issue of AJPA, Ales Hrdlicka, was also reprinted in the Yearbook (Washburn 1953a)
the journal's founder and first editor, whose biases are and later revised for the widely read Anthropology To-
now evident (Blakey 1997), proposed that "[t]he para- day (Washburn 1953b). Washburn described the trans-
mount scientific objective of physical anthropology" was formations that defined the "new physical anthropology."
the study of the normal white man living under ordinary In its rebirth, classification would give way to processual
conditions (Hrdlicka 1918:18). studies, theory now would become paramount, new tech-
Even when publications seemed to anticipate the nology would supplant anthropometry, and hypothesis
modern era, race overshadowed the innovative features testing would displace mere speculation.
of the studies. E. A. Hooton's The Indians of Pecos In line with the focus on the genetic approach to
Pueblo (1930) has been described as one of the most biological anthropology, William C. Boyd's (1950) Ge-
important publications of its time. It is frequently cited netics and the Races of Man proclaimed the death of skel-
as the defining moment in the birth of modern skeletal etal biology with the renaissance of genetics. He argued
biology. Hooton established the paleoepidemiological that blood groups of known genetic inheritance would
approach that introduced quantitative analysis as a meth- become the future of biological anthropology. Boyd spe-
odology. He enumerated the observations that he could cifically targeted osteology, saying that genetics would
make for a specific lesion and noted the percentage of make skeletal studies "passe." Blood groups would domi-
pathologies. Although this may seem a minor innova- nate the discipline because they were inherited, math-
tion, until the late 1960s, researchers routinely failed to ematically manipulable, objective and not subject to
provide this information. It was not until the 1970s that prejudice, and insulated from environmental influence.
rudimentary epidemiological methods became a basic Boyd claimed that since an individual's blood type did
research methodology in bioarchaeology. Nonetheless, not change during one's lifetime, it could be assumed to
in The Indians of Pecos Pueblo, Hooton distilled a racial be immune to selection. This remarkable misunderstand-
typology that described the skeletal population as a com- ing of evolutionary mechanisms did not dampen Boyd's
posite of a number of racial groups. He accepted the influence, and blood groups became the preferred method
premise of "pure races" defined by fixed immutable ge- for population analysis. Interestingly, while geneticists
netic traits present since their origins. Although Hooton claimed to be at the cutting edge of research, their major
claimed that the racial typology of Pecos was only an contribution remained the descriptive typological analy-
exercise that did not necessarily reflect population his- sis of race. The retention of typology in physical anthro-
tory, he argued later in the book that the "African" racial pology demands to be examined more fully.
types found at Pecos were features that the population Until the 1980s, skeletal biology remained a de-
retained as a result of their African heritage. These ra- scriptive undertaking, which contributed to its mori-
cial features, according to Hooton, were present when bund state (Armelagos et al. 1982). The field was
ancestral populations migrated out of Africa (Armelagos plagued by a fundamental worldview that had little
1968). Even with its innovative approach to paleo- theoretical or methodological foundation. In the drive to
pathology, the epidemiological perspective of Pecos re- reconstruct culture history, racial models were used to
mained a footnote to history. It was the racial typology analyze similarities in morphology that implied genetic
that captured the interest of other researchers. relationships. Cranial similarities were considered suffi-
The early 1950s saw a remarkable confluence of cient evidence to establish cultural relationships between
publications in anthropology that offered two dramati- and among populations.
Bioarchaeology as Anthropology
Even as it attempted to move beyond culture his-
tory, skeletal biology seemed trapped by its historical
perspective. Some paleopathologists, for example,
claimed their primary objective was the diagnosis of skel-
etal lesions that could be used to determine a disease's
temporal and geographic distribution. The field was chal-
lenged further theoretically by the indiscriminate appli-
cation of advanced medical technology to diagnose
pathological conditions. The standard by which progress
in paleopathology or skeletal biology was measured was
the researcher's ability to incorporate the latest advances
in medical instrumentation or statistical analysis
(Armelagos et al. 1982). New technologies—whether
they were the latest imaging system or the most up-to-
date multivariate statistical package—were applied with-
out a concern for solving a problem beyond the issue of
diagnosis or description. The cultural context of disease
or the adaptive aspects of the morphological feature were
not a major concern.
Even as bioarchaeology was developing, skeletal
biologists continued to engage in typological studies,
including some not-so-subtle attempts to imply a differ-
ential evolution of racial groups. Carleton Coon's (1962,
1965) racial studies represented the most prominent of
such models. After the obvious racist intent of craniol-
ogy was overcome, racial typology remained the means
by which skeletal biologists reconstructed the biological
history of a population. For example, influential biologi-
cal anthropologists such as W. W. Howells (1973, 1989;
Howells and Crichton 1966) continued to use crania to
reconstruct population history. Although Howells aban-
doned the term race, he defined geographic groups that
corresponded to his earlier racial groups. There is now a
computer program, Fordisc 2.0 (Owsley and Jantz 1996),
packaged for personal computers that uses the Howells
database and claims to be able to classify an unknown
specimen into one of Howells's geographic populations.
Tests of the Fordisc 2.0 program with homogenous Afri-
can samples from ancient Nubia demonstrate its failure
(Belcher et al. 2002; Leathers et al. 2002): nearly one-
half of the crania were classified as belonging to popu-
lations outside of Africa.
In a sense, the current application of mitochondrial
DNA to reconstruct human migration patterns is analo-
gous to the typological studies of blood groups or crania
in earlier research. L. Cavalli-Sforza (Cavalli-Sforza and
Minch 1997; Cavalli-Sforza and Piazza 1993; Cavalli-
Sforza et al. 1988) and others (Jorde et al. 1997; Torroni
et al. 1993; Torroni et al. 1994) are using mitochondrial
DNA and other genetic systems to reconstruct the origin
and dispersion of human populations out of Africa. These
29
studies use sophisticated genetic techniques to answer
typological questions reminiscent of an earlier era of
anthropology (Terrell and Stewart 1996).
Development of Bioarchaeology
The conflicting paradigms within paleopathology
delayed its impact on bioarchaeology. Paleopathology
has two major perspectives with quite divergent objec-
tives: (1) the determination of the chronology and ge-
ography of disease from a biomedical, even clinical,
perspective and (2) the reconstruction of societal life-
ways from an anthropological focus. The incorporation
of an anthropological perspective in paleopathology was
essential in the development of bioarchaeology. Most
early paleopathologists were physicians or anthropolo-
gists strongly committed to a biomedical focus, and
paleopathology clearly had its beginning in medicine with
an interest in diagnosis. In their widely read synthesis,
Ortner and Aufderheide (1991) ally paleopathology with
biomedicine rather than with anthropology and its bio-
cultural perspective (Armelagos 1994). These two dis-
tinctive viewpoints remain the forces that define the field
in different ways to this day.
The birth of bioarchaeology can be seen as the blend-
ing of methods and data from skeletal biology and archae-
ology. Hypothesis testing was featured in both approaches.
The fact that skeletal material can be used to indepen-
dently measure outcomes represents one of bioarchae-
ology's greatest strengths. Even as archaeology debated
the postprocessual critique, bioarchaeology retained its
concern for process and its commitment to hypothesis
testing. The contribution of postprocessual thinking to
bioarchaeology has been an interest in framing hypoth-
eses in a political-economic context, using the analysis
of skeletons to measure the effects of social, political,
and economic transformations on health and illness.
Postprocessual archaeology that reflects a more politi-
cal perspective (Leone 1995) and bioarchaeology share
overlapping interests. Race (Blakey 1998), violence
(Martin and Frayer 1997), power (Blakely et al. 1997),
gender (Grauer and Stuart-Macadam 1998), and inequal-
ity (Goodman et al. 1995) are topics of mutual concern.
The incorporation of a population perspective was
an essential first step in the modern transformation of
paleopathology. Although the individual is the unit of
diagnosis, the population is the unit of analysis. The dis-
ease process from a bioarchaeological perspective can
be understood only in the context of population analy-
sis. Bioarchaeologists have used populations to analyze
regions and ecosystems (i.e., agriculture in tropical ar-
30
eas). In addition, more recent advances in skeletal biol-
ogy resulted from examining the skeleton at the organ,
tissue, cellular, and subcellular levels. Analyses of bone
histology (Martin and Armelagos 1979) and chemistry
(White and Armelagos 1997) to study osteoporosis, the
use of stable isotopes to reconstruct diet (Schwarz and
Schoeninger 1991) and determine age of weaning
(Katzenberg et al. 1996), the analysis of antibiotic use
(Armelagos et al. 2002), and the DNA identification of
pathogens (Braun et al. 1998) provide new dimensions
to bioarchaeology. Developing from this theoretical per-
spective, a new journal has appeared recently called An-
cient Biomolecules, specializing in research that focuses
on subcellular analysis.
Culture as a component of an individual's environ-
ment can influence the disease process in many ways.
As a part of the environment, culture can buffer indi-
viduals from some environmental insults (Bates 1953)
while at the same time producing different insults (May
1960) that can disrupt an individual's physiology (by
definition a stress indicator). By reconstructing cultural
behavior, the bioarchaeologist can evaluate its effective-
ness as a buffer, its failure to buffer, and its role in pro-
ducing anthropogenic insults. Considering adaptation in
this context has led to a more systematic analysis of hu-
man health and disease interaction that characterizes
bioarchaeology. By examining stress indicators, "cracks"
in the process of adaptation can be used to evaluate the
ability of a cultural system to respond to stressors (Good-
man et al. 1988).
The third advance important in the development of
bioarchaeology was the recognition that multiple indi-
cators of stress (i.e., congenital defects, growth disrup-
tions, nutritional deficiencies, infections, degenerative
conditions, and trauma) (Goodman, Martin, et al. 1984;
Larsen 1987, 1997) and patterns of cranial (Carlson and
Van Gerven 1977; Van Gerven et al. 1976) and postcra-
nial (Ruff 2000) skeletal morphology are indispensable
factors in reconstructing patterns of adaptation. The use
of multiple stress indicators can reveal patterns that are
often missed by studies that use only single stress indi-
cators. For example, instead of being concerned only with
the evidence of scurvy or rickets in a population, a study
in which a suite of skeletal indicators is taken together
may reveal a pattern of nutritional deficiencies.
The final step in the revitalization of bioarchaeology
and the attainment of its full potential was the use of
skeletal evidence as a key element in archaeological in-
vestigation (Blakely 1977; Buikstra 1977; Cook and
Buikstra 1979). With these tools, bioarchaeology has
been in the vanguard in determining issues such as the
George J. Armelagos
impact of cultural practices on human adaptation or mal-
adaptation. The regional approach that characterized the
work of Cook (1979), Buikstra (1977), and Larsen
(1984), in which the archaeology and the skeletal biol-
ogy of a region were controlled, was a major stimulus in
the development of bioarchaeology. The archaeological
record provides unique opportunities for comparative
analyses because archaeological sites provide access to
a vast array of ecological settings, including pre/post
contact, urban/rural, inland/coastal, highland/lowland,
preagricultural/agricultural, and preindustrial/industrial.
Neolithic Transformation
The origins of agriculture remains an issue that con-
tinues to whet our anthropological interest. Ester Boserup
(1965) authored an influential study that proposed a feed-
back system in which an increase in population pressure
is key to understanding changes in agricultural produc-
tion. The increase in population, she argued, stimulated
agricultural production, which further increased the
population pressure that further stimulated production.
Mark N. Cohen (1975, 1977), expanding on Boserup's
model, suggested that an increase in population pressure
might also be the key to understanding the origins of
agriculture.
Whatever the trigger that pushed the development
of agriculture, agriculture was assumed to have benefit-
ted the health of the farmers. The conventional wisdom
for many years was that agricultural populations ex-
perienced improved health and nutrition. This view
was championed by V. G. Childe (1951), who suggested
that food surpluses generated by agricultural subsistence
were the source of improved nutritional health, which
in turn explained the population explosion following
the Neolithic.
The early research of paleopathologists was designed
to document the role that agriculture played in improv-
ing health. However, the results from Sudanese Nubia
(Armelagos 1969) and Dickson Mounds, Illinois (Lallo
et al. 1978) produced paradoxical findings that indicated
that agricultural populations were experiencing signifi-
cant increases in nutritional deficiencies and infectious
disease. The results were so fundamentally different from
what was expected that they demanded further bio-
archaeological analysis that might also help to clarify
the role that population pressure may have played in the
origins of agriculture. If Cohen was correct, then one
would expect that as population pressures increased, there
would be an increase in pathological conditions. As ag-
ricultural production increased, the pathologies would
Bioarchaeology as Anthropology
dissipate. It was the possibility of testing alternative hy-
potheses that framed the discussion at the symposium
entitled "Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture"
(Cohen and Armelagos 1984).
The symposium considered case studies in which a
transition from horticulture to intensive agriculture oc-
curred and in which the health status of 19 populations
that experienced the transition had been evaluated. There
were a number of interesting findings. To begin with, it
appears that with the onset of sedentism, whether the
population was practicing agriculture or not, there was
an increase in infectious disease. This increase was not
solely dependent on the practice of agriculture; for ex-
ample, in California some groups were so successful
in collecting acorns that a sedentary pattern of living
became possible (Dickel 1984). Similarly, gatherer-
hunters from the Northwest Coast were living in such a
resource-rich environment (Cybulski 1994) that they
were also able to maintain a large sedentary population.
In both of these cases, the development of sedentism in-
creased the infectious disease load. However, if and when
sedentary patterns of agricultural intensification oc-
curred, a rise in nutritional deficiencies would also be-
come apparent.
In many instances, the impact of agricultural subsis-
tence was dramatic. At Dickson Mounds, Illinois, the
transition to intensive agriculture (A.D. 950-1350) cor-
responded with a rapid, significant increase in infectious
and nutritional diseases (Goodman, Lallo, et al. 1984).
Iron deficiency anemia as measured by porotic hyperos-
tosis increased from 13 percent to 51 percent. Systemic
infections as indicated by periosteal reaction more than
doubled, from 21 percent to 51 percent. There was also a
synergistic relationship between nutritional and infec-
tious diseases, and in individuals with both lesions, the
manifestation of both conditions was more severe (Lallo
et al. 1978). In addition, the studies showed an increase
in trauma, an earlier onset of degenerative bone joint
disease, and changes in patterns of growth as evidenced
by enamel defects (Blakey and Armelagos 1985;
Goodman et al. 1980; Rose 1977). Given the knowledge
that we have about the rates of enamel formation (Good-
man, Rose, and Armelagos 1984), we can determine the
period when adults suffered childhood stress. In this
sense, teeth have a memory of earlier metabolic events.
With this information, it is possible to show that adults
who experienced growth disruptions as infants and chil-
dren had an earlier onset of death (Goodman and
Armelagos 1988).
Despite declining health, agriculturalists were able
to increase population size by reducing birth spacing
31
(Armelagos et al. 1991). A reduction in birth spacing
and the change in subsistence resulted in considerable
biological costs to segments of the population, with
women of reproductive age, infants, and children being
at greatest risk (Goodman and Armelagos 1989).
There are a number of complex factors that may ex-
plain the decline in nutritional health following the de-
velopment of primary food production. While agriculture
can produce surpluses, the seasonal cycle frequently cre-
ates a "seasonal hunger" period (Bentley et al. 1999).
During the spring when stores have been depleted and
the work in the field intensifies, nutrition will suffer. Agri-
cultural production may be crippled by blights or droughts
that can plague the group for an extended period.
Although gatherer-hunters may have to deal with
"patchy" resource distribution and experience the vagar-
ies of nature, they seem better able to cope with short-
ages. For example, the !Kung have a variety of plants
and animals that provide their food, as they recognize
365 species of plants and animals as edible (Lee 1968).
Western scientists calculate that this represents about 73
percent of the edible items in the environment. Nineteen
species are considered minor foods that are available
locally and seasonally. The 14 items in the primary and
major food categories make up 75 percent of the foods
consumed by the !Kung, and the simple digging stick is
necessary to recover about a quarter of the plants eaten.
The range of plants and animals available for gatherers
and hunters in periods of shortage is an insurance against
famine.
In agricultural groups, certain dietary items gain the
status of "super" foods that are the dietary mainstays and
are important in ritual and ceremonial life. In many Na-
tive American groups, maize is the primary food item.
Maize, unfortunately, is an incomplete source of essen-
tial amino acids because of a deficiency in lysine (Katz
et al. 1974). While many groups complement maize with
beans, which have lysine, maize is used exclusively as a
weaning food and as the food of choice for those who
are ill. Other cereal grains contain phytates that bind cer-
tain minerals such as iron, reducing their bioavailability
and thus contributing to anemia.
The weaning process appears to be an especially criti-
cal phase in the life cycle (Cuthbertson 1999). Because
of an economic demand for children, there is pressure to
wean infants as soon as possible, but the type of wean-
ing food is critical. If maize were used exclusively, this
would lead to deficiencies because of the insufficiency
of lysine.
Trade affects the availability of food in interesting
ways. Often the most nutritious foods are traded for goods
32
that may have symbolic value. In the Third World today,
where foods are produced for the Western table, local
populations have experienced a decline in dietary health.
The money they receive for their labor is used to buy
expensive imported foods, such as caffeinated colas, that
do not provide a balanced diet. Although political-eco-
nomic factors are frequently considered in our analyses
of modern inequalities, they are frequently overlooked
in studies of ancient times (Goodman et al. 1995). Fol-
lowing the Neolithic, class differentiation became a fact
of life in many world regions. The inequality within
groups and between groups would have certainly led
to disparities in the availability of food for some seg-
ments of the population. Social and economic inequali-
ties often lead to inequalities in health. The gap that
existed within and between groups continued to widen
in post-Neolithic times, creating an unprecedented gap
between the "haves" and "have-nots" (Armelagos and
Brown 2002).
What Can Bioarchaeology Tell Us about
Emerging Infectious Disease and
Nutritional Problems?
The present period of unprecedented emerging
disease has captured the interest of the public (Drexler
2002) and the medical community (Hughes 2001;
Lederberg 1998). In the past two decades nearly two
dozen pathogens such as Ebola and HIV have emerged,
seemingly out of nowhere. In reality, most of these
"emerging" diseases have existed for years and were only
"discovered" when they impacted people in power
(Farmer 1996). We frequently fail to consider political
and economic contexts that bring humans into contact
with pathogens. For example, extreme poverty is the
greatest cause of illness and death in the world (WHO
1992). The World Health Organization (WHO 2001:ap-
pendix A) reports that of the 55 million global deaths in
the year 2000, 14 million were the result of infectious,
parasitic, and respiratory diseases. The magnitude of the
problem is the result of the world economy expanding
into new ecological zones, and practices such as logging
and mining have had a major ecological impact that has
changed disease ecology.
The movement to new ecological niches and the evo-
lution of cultural systems would have changed the rela-
tionship between humans and pathogens. The concept
of epidemiological transition (Omran 1971) has been
broadened to reflect the reality of the evolution of dis-
ease (Armelagos et al. 1996). Human populations have
undergone three epidemiological transitions (Barrett et
George J. Armelagos
al. 1998). The first transition corresponded to a univer-
sally completed shift from food gathering to primary food
production. Although it occurred in multiple locations
and in slow, complex ways, this transition had revolu-
tionary implications for subsequent human life on the
planet. The Neolithic revolution both allowed and re-
quired population growth and increasing levels of social
inequality, forever altering human/pathogen interaction.
A second epidemiological transition began early in
this century with the decline of infectious disease and
the emergence of chronic disease. The rise in the preva-
lence of chronic disease is related to the increases in lon-
gevity that have occurred over the past few centuries.
Changes in nutrition and reduced exposure to risk have
resulted in a larger percentage of individuals reaching
the oldest age segment of the population. The techno-
logical advances such as antibiotic use that characterize
the second epidemiological transition create the prob-
lems of the third epidemiological transition. The expan-
sion of our globalized economy requires the exploitation
of people and resources from the Third World, which in-
creases worldwide environmental degradation.
We are currently entering the third epidemiological
transition, characterized by the emergence and reemer-
gence of antibiotic-resistant infectious disease on a
global scale (Armelagos 1998). Within our lifetime, an-
tibiotics that have been vastly successful in fighting dis-
ease may become ineffective, since so many pathogens
are becoming resistant to all of them.
To comprehend how we arrived at this state, we
need to understand that emerging diseases have been part
of the epidemiological pattern since the Neolithic. Pri-
mary food production resulted in the first epidemiologi-
cal transition, in which there occurred an acceleration of
"new" disease (Barrett et al. 1998). Farming practices
disrupted the local ecology, and the domestication of
animals increased contact with insect vectors. Frequently
these insects developed a preference for human blood
and became the source of diseases such as malaria, yel-
low fever, sleeping sickness, and elephantiasis. Some of
the disease vectors (i.e., Aedes aegypti) that spread yel-
low fever and dengue fever became dependent on hu-
man habitats and needed stagnant water found in open
containers. Various agricultural practices such as irriga-
tion and the use of human feces for fertilizer increased
contact with nonvector parasites.
Food production was a huge economic change that
is associated with sedentary settlement patterns and popu-
lation growth. It would be difficult to overemphasize the
importance of social stratification on health indications
in prehistory or the present. The Neolithic revolution
Bioarchaeology as Anthropology
marks the beginning of the social stratification that is
the prime determinant of health differentials both within
and between societies. The "inequality gap" in health and
wealth accelerates with later cultural evolution.
Urbanization is a relatively recent innovation in hu-
man history. Problems in removing human waste and de-
livering uncontaminated water to the public are ever
present in urban centers. With urbanization, for the first
time, diseases such as typhus and the plague could be
spread from person to person, and populations became
large enough to maintain disease in an endemic form.
Measles, mumps, chicken pox, and other viral diseases be-
came entrenched in the population. Prostitution in urban
centers was a primary factor in the spread of venereal
disease. On a larger, cross-cultural scale, what is an en-
demic disease in one population may become an epidemic
in other populations through differential susceptibility,
cross-population interactions, and cultural practices.
Cross-continental trade and travel resulted in a series of
unprecedented epidemics (McNeill 1976). The plague in
Europe in the 1300s killed approximately 25 million
people. The impact of smallpox and measles on the New
World population following European contact was an
example of the globalization of disease process.
The process of industrialization magnified social and
environmental problems of cities. The industrial cities
that rose about 200 years ago created industrial wastes
and polluted water and air. Slums became focal points
for poverty and the spread of disease. Smallpox, typhus,
typhoid, diphtheria, measles, and yellow fever epidem-
ics that originated in slums have been well documented.
Tuberculosis, pneumonia, and bronchitis, exacerbated by
harsh working conditions and crowding, became a com-
mon problem. In reality, urban population centers are
population sinks. Their extremely high mortality outstrips
their reproductive capacity, and in-migration is needed
to maintain population size. Given the rapid increase in
the size of cities, waves of in-migration from rural areas
became the reality.
Nutritional Disease
In the United States only 14 percent of adults com-
ply with the national Recommended Dietary Allowances
(RDAs) and only 30 percent consume fewer than 30 per-
cent of their calories from dietary fats. Only two percent
of Americans are in compliance with both recommenda-
tions (Murphy et al. 1992). Given these startling statis-
tics, the obvious question is why Homo sapiens, with
their superior knowledge of nutrition, do not eat a
healthier diet.
33
A search into our evolutionary past to answer this
question has resulted in limited success. Understanding
primate evolution provides some insights into modern
dietary habits, as the evolution of the primate gut allowed
for the processing of secondary compounds and fibrous
plant materials. K. Milton (1993, 2000) has shown that
gut transport time affects the absorption of plant pro-
tein. Humans transport food through the gut more rap-
idly than do the chimpanzees and orangutans, as a result
of their longer small intestine and shorter large intestine
than those found in the great apes. The human gut is well
adapted to process high-quality, high-density food that
can be readily digested.
Early hominid dependence on high-density foods
necessitated the development of more efficient food
search techniques to offset the costs of finding dispersed
high-quality foods (Aiello 1992; Aiello and Wheeler
1995). The time saved by consuming high-density foods
increased the occasions for social interaction. If humans
selected plants containing toxins or foods with large
amounts of nondigestible fiber, those foods required cul-
tural processing to remove the toxins and to break down
the plant fibers. From a bioarchaeological perspective,
the evolution of processing techniques such as fire for
cooking and other practices can be uncovered in the ar-
chaeological record (Wrangham et al. 1999). In modern
contexts, the ability to process large amounts of high-den-
sity food may explain some aspects of overconsumption.
In addition, humans possess a neurological basis
for tastes (Drewnowski et al. 1992) such as sweet,
salty, sour, bitter, and umami (taste for glutamate found
in protein) (Bellisle 1999). If a sweet solution is intro-
duced into amniotic fluid, the fetus of a human will
suckle. Humans are "hardwired" to find the sweet taste
as pleasant (Desor et al. 1977). This propensity for the
sweet taste is not surprising from an evolutionary per-
spective, since sweetness is a predictor of high-energy
food sources. Our sweet tooth represents a problem when
the food system can deliver large amounts of refined
sugars, such as that seen during and after the post-
industrial era. Our sweet tooth may be necessary for un-
derstanding the near-universal use of sugars, but the
existence of a social-economic system is what transforms
these tastes from a curiosity and a luxury into a low-cost
"staple" (Mintz 1979, 1985).
Humans are food generalists, reflecting our ances-
try as omnivores. Omnivores faced a dilemma in their
search for new food items, however. While they searched
for new dietary items, they often feared eating them. This
neophobia was resolved by the development of cuisine
(Rozin 1982), which allows hominids to mediate between
34
nature and culture with respect to what is edible, how it
should be prepared, and how it should be eaten. The con-
cept of cuisine is part of a cultural system that helps in-
dividuals minimize the omnivores' dilemma.
Humans and other mammals are also characterized
by their need for dietary variety. If you consume any
food for any extended period of time, you will likely
experience "palate fatigue" in which you lose interest in
that particular food item. In our evolutionary history, this
ensured that variety would be maintained in the diet and
that the diet would more likely be balanced. The nar-
rowing of the dietary niche following the Neolithic re-
duced the variety of available foods, but an illusion of
variety was maintained by preparing the same food items
in many different ways. A trip to any supermarket's ce-
real aisle will illustrate how far this idea can be pushed.
The impact on our nutrition may be reflected in the sta-
tistic that only two percent of Americans are following
the recommended dietary guidelines. Bioarchaeological
analyses need to be incorporated into understanding the
political and economic dimension of contemporary nu-
tritional problems. Compliance by gender, ethnicity, and
class has a prehistoric dimension.
Conclusion
Bioarchaeology as anthropology will not provide
solutions to all the miseries that humans face. How-
ever, it can provide insights that are essential for under-
standing our relationship to our environment, how we
interacted with it throughout history, and how we are
interacting with it now. Bioarchaeology is at the fore-
front in documenting the evolution and adaptation of
human populations and the disease consequences of
changes that occur. The inequality that is reflected in the
differential access to resources that characterizes much
of the contemporary world has been a part of our evolu-
tionary history. We can document the increase in the gap
within and between societies that affects the differential
survival based on differences in gender, race, and class.
That this reality is part of our evolutionary history does
not mean that it is "natural" and "immutable."
The esoterica of our past is often enough to drive
our interest in bioarchaeology. The anthropological per-
spective has moved us to concerns for the practical as-
pects of everyday life. We are enriched when essential
insights drawn from the past provide a prologue to the
future. Understanding the successes and failures of our
ancestors helps us to understand how we live and how
we die. Bioarchaeology, along with the rest of anthro-
pology, should search for relevance to contemporary life.
George J. Armelagos
The experience may help us understand ourselves more
deeply. Of the many reasons that we anthropologists find
to apply our craft, I can think of no better justification
than that found in the following words:
Readers who have come thus far need not be told in
many words of what the facts must already have brought
to their minds—that the study of man and civilization
is not only a matter of scientific interest, but at once
passes into the practical business of life. We have in it
the means of understanding our lives in and our place
in the world, vaguely and imperfectly it is true, but at
any rate more clearly than any former generation. The
knowledge of man's course of life, from remote past to
the present, will not only help us forecast the future,
but may guide us in our duty of leaving the world better
than we found it.
These are Edward B. Tylor's (1881:439^40) words
that he chose to close his book, Anthropology, written over
a century ago. This is advice that we can live with today.
A cknowledgments
I want to thank A. J. Kelso for reminding me about the
quotes from Hrdlicka and Tylor. James Moore and Bethany
Turner provided many useful editorial comments and help-
ful suggestions with the material presented in this paper.
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