What’s Your Question? Theoretical Bioarchaeology in the American Southwest and Ancient Arabia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Debra L. Martin" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Bioarchaeology today is interdisciplinary, scientific, and theoretical. For over 30 years, Debra Martin has contributed substantially to archaeology by promoting these shifts in the discipline. Her scholarly accomplishments are extensive but I suggest that perhaps her most important contribution to the field of bioarchaeology has been her ability to train the next generation of scholars to ask meaningful questions about people in the past. Martin’s philosophy is that large questions promote exploration of answers from a variety of data, methods, and perspectives. Using case studies from the Mogollon region of the American Southwest and Bronze Age Arabia, this paper exemplifies Martin’s influence toward biocultural inquiry. Skeletal data from Grasshopper Pueblo and Mimbres sites are presented as examples of how violence and trauma may have varied interpretations. Data from the site of Tell Abraq (UAE) demonstrate the utility of asking broad questions to interpret morbidity and mortality from complicated skeletal assemblages. Research like this is more nuanced by theory and consideration of many perspectives and this is a direct reflection of Martin’s publications, teaching, and mentorship. It is sure to continue in the decades to come as her students are now training the next generation in biocultural, data-driven, theoretical bioarchaeology.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Debra L. Martin   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 32138