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Course Description:

Human skeletal remains provide a window into the lived experiences of people in the past, but their interpretations are typically divided along theoretical and disciplinary lines. Human osteologists, for example, rely heavily on techniques for gathering and validating biological data on bodies and populations that supposedly transcend history, geography, and social setting. On the other hand, studies of the body that are deeply embedded in social contexts often fail to recognize the powerful material constraints posed by the human form, as well as the evolutionary history that has produced and shaped it. In this course we will seek a middle ground that acknowledges how the body emerges from evolutionary, biological, social, and behavioral forces. This approach recognizes the plasticity of the body, particularly the skeletal body.

This course will introduce the fundamental of skeletal analysis and overview traditional methods to determine demographic parameters (i.e., sex, age, ancestry) as well as indicators of activity, diet, pathology, and trauma. At the same time, we will carefully consider social identities, including gender, ethnicity, and class, as key variables and intersectional forces in the formation and transformation of bodies across the life course.

Fall 2022 T/Th 11am-12:05pm
Instructor: Dr. Lauren Hosek (lauren.hosek@colorado.edu)