Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology The Strange and the Familiar

About this book

Biological anthropology is a diverse field, with countless research methods and techniques in different sub-disciplines. Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology takes a critical perspective to the current state of the field, exploring theory and practice in paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, and ecology. Contributors challenge how evidence is discovered, collected and interpreted, and explain that researchers gain insights by de-familiarizing themselves from well-known methods and taking a different perspective – 'making the familiar strange'. Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology covers how researchers' biases and assumptions affect the interpretation of topics such as human evolution and population movements; race, health, and disability; bodies and embodiment; and landscapes and ecology. A final chapter includes a critical assessment of new thinking about technology, in addition to the multilayered and complex nature of both research questions and evidence. This is an insightful text for researchers and graduate students in anthropology, biology, ecology, history and philosophy of science.

Contents

Introduction: (Re)Discovery of the Strange and the Familiar: Theory and Methods for a 21st Century Biological Anthropology / Sang-Hee Lee and Cathy Willermet

Part I. The Strange and Familiar: New Landscapes and Theoretical Approaches:
1. Women in Human Evolution Redux / Dänae G. Khorasani and Sang-Hee Lee
2. Hegemony and the Central Asian Paleolithic Record: Perspectives on Pleistocene Landscapes and Morphological Mosaicism / Michelle M. Glantz
3. Anthropology Now: How Popular Science (Mis)characterizes Human Evolution / Marc Kissel
4. The Strangeness of Not Eating Insects: The Loss of an Important Food Source in the United States / Julie J. Lesnik
5. Methods Without Meaning: Moving Beyond Body Counts in Research on Behavior and Health / Robin G. Nelson

Part II. (Re)discovery of Evidence: New Thinking About Data, Methods, and Fields:
6. (Re)Discovering Paleopathology: Integrating Individuals and Populations in Bioarchaeology / Ann L.W. Stodder and Jennifer F. Byrnes
7. Parsing the Paradox: Examining Heterogeneous Frailty in Bioarchaeological Assemblages / Sharon N. DeWitte
8. Seeing RED: A Novel Solution to a Familiar Categorical Data Problem / Cathy Willermet, John Daniels, Heather J.H. Edgar and Joseph McKean
9. Paleoanthropology and Analytical Bias: Citation Practices, Analytical Choice, and Prioritizing Quality Over Quantity / Adam P. Van Arsdale
10. (Re)discovering Ancient Hominin Environments: How Stable Carbon Isotopes of Modern Chimpanzee Communities Can Inform Paleoenvironment Reconstruction / Melanie M. Beasley and Margaret J. Schoeninger

Discussion and Conclusion: Move Forward, Critically / Cathy Willermet and Sang-Hee Lee

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Biography

Cathy Willermet is Professor of Anthropology at Central Michigan University and Research Associate at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, US.

Sang-Hee Lee is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Riverside, California, US and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Her 2018 book Close Encounters with Humankind won an American Anthropological Association (AAA) book award.


Contributors:
- Sang-Hee Lee
- Cathy Willermet
- Dänae G. Khorasani
- Sang-Hee Lee
- Michelle M. Glantz
- Marc Kissel
- Julie J. Lesnik
- Robin G. Nelson
- Ann L.W. Stodder
- Jennifer F. Byrnes
- Sharon N. DeWitte
- John Daniels
- Heather J.H. Edgar
- Joseph McKean
- Adam P. Van Arsdale
- Melanie M. Beasley
- Margaret J. Schoeninger