Exploring the Effects of Endemic Warfare and Violence on Women and Children at Casas Grandes

Summary

Bioarcheologists have consistently explored the role that males play in warfare and raiding but the impact of warfare on women and children has been less of a focus. Other studies have shown that women sometimes play a role in fighting, and that women and children suffer from things such as declining resources, losing males from the household, and forced relocation. Casas Grandes provides a case study for the examination of women and children during what was likely to have been a period of endemic warfare. Data regarding age-at-death, burial location, indicators of morbidity, and preliminary trauma are examined in order to compare sex and age subgroups throughout the occupation. The analysis of the skeletal remains show that both men and women show evidence of trauma and poor health, and that children show instances of physiological stress. Data derived from the Casas Grandes burials are compared with health profiles from other contemporaneous groups not involved in warfare. These results suggest that warfare and its effects go far beyond what happens to the male combatants.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Moving Forward in Casas Grandes Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage