1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Climate and Environmental Change
This handbook examines human responses to climatic and environmental changes in the past,and their impacts on disease patterns, nutritional status, migration, and interpersonal violence. Bioarchaeology—the study of archaeological human skeletons—provides direct evidence of the human experience of past climate and environmental changes and serves as an important complement to paleoclimate, historical, and archaeological approaches to changes we may expect with global warming.
Comprising 27 chapters from experts across a broad range of time periods and geographical regions, this book addresses hypotheses about how climate and environmental changes impact human health and well-being, factors that promote resilience, and circumstances that make migration or interpersonal violence a more likely outcome. The volume highlights the potential relevance of bioarchaeological analysis to contemporary challenges by organizing the chapters into a framework outlined by the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Planning for a warmer world requires knowledge about humans as biological organisms with a deep connection to Earth's ecosystems balanced by an appreciation of how historical and socio-cultural circumstances, socioeconomic inequality, degrees of urbanization, community mobility, and social institutions play a role in shaping long-term outcomes for human communities.
Containing a wealth of nuanced perspectives about human-environmental relations, book is key reading for students of environmental archaeology, bioarchaeology, and the history of disease. By providing a longer view of contemporary challenges, it may also interest readers in public health, public policy, and planning.
1. A Bioarchaeology of Climate and Environmental Change Gwen Robbins Schug
Part I: Good Health and Well-Being2. Exploring the Third Epidemiological Transition: Palaeopathology's contribution to understanding health and well-being today and for the future Charlotte A. Roberts
3. Disease in the Context of Environmental Change Molly K. Zuckerman & Ashley C. Dafoe4. Living on the edge: Climate-induced micronutrient famines in the ancient Atacama Desert? Annie Marie E. Snoddy, Charlotte L. King, Siân E. Halcrow, Andrew R. Millard, Hallie R. Buckley, Vivien G. Standen, & Bernardo T. Arriaza
5. Climate change and adaptive systems in Bronze Age Gansu, China Elizabeth Berger & Hui Wang
6. Resources, stress, and response in Viking Age Iceland Guðný Zoëga & Kimmarie A. Murphy7. Respiratory disease in the Middle Nile Valley: The impact of environment and aridification Anna M. Davies-Barrett, Daniel Antoine, & Charlotte A. Roberts
8. Health and disease at the marshes: Deciphering human-environmental interactions at Roman Aventicum, Switzerland (1st-3rd century AD) Chryssa BourbouPart II: Socioeconomic and Gender Equality, no Poverty, or Hunger
9. A bioarchaeology of social inequality and environmental change Kenneth C. Nystrom & Gwen Robbins Schug10. Urban environments: Demography, epidemiology, and the role of climate change in determining health outcomes Sharon N. DeWitte
11. Social variation in an urban environment and its impacts on stress: Preliminary results from ancient Greek Himera (Sicily) Britney Kyle & Laurie Reitsema12. Biocultural aspects of culture contact, exchange, and population movements in Cyprus Anna J. Osterholtz
13. Resilience and change: A biocultural view of a Bedouin population in the emerging modern Middle East Megan A. Perry & Emily Edwards14. A bioarchaeology of madness: Modernity, pellagra, and the rise of the manicomio system in the Veneto Region of Italy Megan Miller, Gwen Robbins Schug, Luca Pagani, & Nicola Carrara
Part III: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions15. Making sense of violence and environmental change in Europe Rebecca Redfern
16. The climate change-witch execution connection: Living with environmental uncertainty on the Colorado Plateau (AD 800–1350) Debra L. Martin & Ryan P. Harrod
17. Biological and cultural adaptations to climate change in prehistoric central California Marin A. Pilloud, Al W. Schwitalla, & Kristen A. Broehl
18. Environmental, behavioral, and bodily change: Violence in the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1450), North Chile Christina Torres-Rouff19. A diachronic view of violent relations and environmental change in the Titicaca Basin, Bolivia Sara L. Juengst
20. Violence and climate change in the Jōmon period, Japan Hisashi Nakao, Tomomi Nakagawa, Kohei Tamura, Yuji Yamaguchi, Naoko Matsumoto, & Takehiko MatsugiPart IV: Life on Land
21. Slouching toward the Neolithic: Complexity, simplification, and resilience in the Japanese Archipelago Mark James Hudson22. A bioarchaeological perspective on trauma incidence in high altitude environments, Nepal Jacqueline T. Eng & Mark Aldenderfer
23. Climate and activity in Middle Holocene Siberia Angela R. Lieverse
24. Aridity and adaptation among Arabian Bronze Age communities: Investigating mobility and climate change using isotope analysis Lesley A. Gregoricka
25. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope evidence for late third millennium BCE environmental and social change at Titriş Höyük, an Early Bronze Age urban center in the Lower Turkish Euphrates watershed Adam W. Schneider, Andrew Somerville, O. Dilek Erdal, Yilmaz S. Erdal, & Guillermo Algaze
26. Environmental dynamics and stable isotopic signatures in early Inner Asian Steppe communities Michelle Hrivnyak & Jacqueline T. Eng27. Human-animal entanglement and climate change: Multi-species approaches in Remote Oceania Judith Littleton, Gina McFarlane, & Melinda S. Allen
Biography
Gwen Robbins Schug is Professor of Anthropology at Appalachian State University, USA.
