(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas
Part of: Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)
This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.
Considering over a decade of research on the bioarchaeology of care and disability, and a half-century of paleopathology, the prevalence of healing and care in past societies is well-established. However, (bio)archaeology has yet to reckon with the cultural assumptions that underpin the study of care, and the difficulties that these assumptions present for researchers embedded in our own historical contexts. These issues are particularly urgent for investigators in the Americas, where anthropological and medical concepts of disease were built through the colonial study of marginalized groups, whose perspectives on their own experiences of health were often misrepresented or omitted altogether. We explore these themes with a focus on bodily intervention and modification that are, could be, or have been erroneously construed as healing and care, including: cranial and dental modification (head-shaping; dental-filing, drilling, adornment, ablation), trepanation, amputation, bone-setting, psychoactive substance use, and tattooing. Specifically, we ask: what constitutes care? What is (paleo)pathological? Who and what needs to be healed? What has historically been considered pathological, but was actually considered ‘healthy’ in context—and vice versa? How might we measure care, particularly if the treated condition does not align with modern criteria of disability, and can we compare different forms of care?
Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-13 of 13)
- Documents (13)
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Bioarqueología del cuidado en Maltrata, Veracruz, México: El caso de las enfermedades treponémicas en la infancia. (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In this work, we propose to know the type of care received by a girl between eight and ten years of age, who suffered from possible congenital syphilis in the chronic stage in the pre-Hispanic population of the Maltrata valley. To do this, we are based on the postulates of the...
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A Burden to Others? Burial 39-C from Iximche’, Guatemala (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. An adult female from the elite part of the Late Postclassic Highland Maya site of Iximche', Guatemala had a jade pendant buried with her and was near another person buried with a gold necklace. She had extensive osteoporosis, a collapsed thoracic vertebra, a healed periosteal reaction,...
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Community Care and Dental Health: Cross-Generational Tooth Wear at Cerro Pacifico, Peru (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Across the globe, progressive tooth wear is related to diet and cultural use of teeth. In the Andes, often high levels of tooth wear are associated with the sandy grit in coastal diets. Extensive tooth wear is classified as an experience of old age. In these contexts, care is invoked...
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Defining a ‘Good Candidate’ for Skull Surgery: A Comparison of Cranial Fractures With and Without the Trepanation Treatment in the Ancient Andes (ca. 500-1000 CE) (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Trepanation---creating holes in the cranial vault by boring, scraping, or cutting---has been documented archaeologically in numerous societies worldwide, but it is best-studied in the pre-Hispanic Andes. Early research on trepanation, conducted by Ephraim George Squier and later...
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The Human Cost of Violence: Exploring Disability and Debility in the Pre-Hispanic American Southwest (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Injury recidivism (increased risk of injury following an initial insult) has been identified as a key factor in determining raid captives within communities when examining violence in the northern American Southwest (Martin 2010; Martin et al. 2008). For the La Plata Valley of New...
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Imparting Vitality in Death: A case of perimortem dental modification at the Late Classic Maya site of Lacanja Tzeltal (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Classic Maya modified teeth in order to impart new qualities, maybe even protections, upon an individual. Specifically, modifications that replicated the ik’ sign (wind, breath) on the anterior teeth have been linked to the notion of vitality. Could this vitality be viewed as...
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Infant Feeding Practices Within a Bioarchaeology of Care Framework: Investigating Isotopic and Paleopathological Data from a Wari Community (600-1000 CE) in the Peruvian Andes (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. <html> Breastfeeding is a dynamic, embodied process and powerful mediator of maternal and childhood health. Accordingly, this study builds a preliminary understanding of breastfeeding and weaning as an intervention of care. Stuart-Macadam (1995:27) describes breast milk as a “vital,...
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The Intersection of Ritual Violence and Disability in the Chimú Empire: A Bioarchaeological Study of Human Sacrifices in the Moche Valley on the north coast of Peru (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Scholarly interest in disability and care within bioarchaeology has grown significantly in recent decades. The application of theoretical frameworks and cutting-edge techniques has enabled scholars to shed light on how individuals with physical differences were perceived and treated...
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Jewels of the Mouth: Tooth Polishing and Oral Care as Care among the Classic Maya (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Since its inception, studies carried out under the auspices of the Bioarchaeology of Care have largely focused on individuals with significant pathologies and impairments. Often, the concept of caregiving in the past (though defined broadly as “health-related care”) takes on a rather...
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New Perspectives on Altered States: Bioarchaeology, Altered States of Knowing, and Social Memory (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Altered States of Consciousness (ASCs) have been used by individuals in a variety of contexts for diverse purposes, as far back as Antiquity. Archaeological investigations of these practices typically focus on indirect evidence of the use of altered states, such as residue analysis of...
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Reconstructing social identity, impairment, and potential caregiving relative to treponematosis at the pre-European contact Aklis site, St. Croix, USVI. (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Despite extensive clinical documentation of the psychosocially and physically debilitating effects of treponematosis (e.g., yaws) and intensive investigations into the disease’s ancient burden in the Americas, physical impairment as well as disability and health-related caregiving have...
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Taking Specimens and Giving “Care”: The Curative Violence of Army Medicine and Anatomical Collecting in Nineteenth Century West Texas (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Bioarchaeologists have framed care as a largely positive, altruistic, and compassionate act of service given to chronically ill and disabled people. Medical interventions, especially surgical ones, often have lifelong consequences for people who survive them. This paper draws on...
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To Help and to Harm: Assisted Death, Trepanation, and Other Variations of Care in the Pre-Contact Southeastern United States (2025)
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This is an abstract from the "(De)Pathologizing the Past: New Perspectives on Intervention and Modification as Care in the Americas" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. When considering the boundaries of care in the past a relativistic perspective forces us to reconsider what we perceive to be “normal.” This paper will explore how alternate realms of possible intervention and care manifest within the archaeological record of the early Precontact...