THINKING AND THEORY IN THE BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF CARE

Summary

The bioarchaeology of care is a case-study-based, contextualised approach for inferring and interpreting the experience of disability and health-related care response in the past that is based on evidence for experience of disease found in human remains. It is supported by the Index of Care, a non-prescriptive on-line instrument intended to assist researchers work systematically through the four stages of bioarchaeology of care analysis. This presentation opens with an overview of the bioarchaeology of care methodology, covering the principles shaping its design as well as its potential and limitations. It goes on to address the most commonly-voiced objections to the archaeological inference of care, before discussing the conceptual foundations on which the new approach was constructed (focusing particularly on theories of agency and on the role of osteobiography). Finally, this presentation will consider why it is important for archaeology to acknowledge the implications of the giving and receipt of care wherever evidence permits - in terms of enriching academic knowledge; realising our ethical obligations to the individuals whose remains we analyse and whose lives we (re)produce; and providing the general public with a perspective on past life and behaviour that may help inform debate in the present.

SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for American Archaeology and Center for Digital Antiquity Collaborative Program to improve digital data in archaeology. If you are the author of this presentation you may upload your paper, poster, presentation, or associated data (up to 3 files/30MB) for free. Please visit http://www.tdar.org/SAA2015 for instructions and more information.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Building a Bioarchaeology of Care

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