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The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere (Hardcover)

by Richard H. Steckel (Editor), Jerome C. Rose (Editor) "Human biologist, historians, and other social scientist have expressed enduring interest in the evolution of human health over the past several millennia..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Cedar Grove, American Journal of Physical Anthropology (more...)

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Editorial Reviews

Review
"In this pathbreaking volume... more than 50 scholars (mostly anthropologists) systematically assess the health of North, South, and Central Americans using skeletal remains dating from over 7,000 years ago to the early 20th century.... Highly recommended." --Choice

"...this is a significant book that will define the emerging field of macrobioarchaeology for years to come. As such, it is required reading for all scholars interested in the study of long-term trends in human health, not only in the Americas but in the rest of the world as well." American Historical Review

"The volume;s contributions to knowledge are wide-ranging and significant." Economic History

"With this important volume, based on several years of collaborative effort, Steckel and Rose have made a major contribution to the comparative study of human health and nutrition in the Americas." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"In this pathbreaking volume, the product of a massive NSF-funded project, more than 50 scholars (mostly anthropologists) systematically assess the health of North, South, and Central Americans using skeletal remains dating from over 7,000 years ago to the early 20th century.... Highly recommended." Choice

Product Description
This study gathers skeletal evidence on seven basic indicators of health to assess chronic conditions that affected individuals who lived in the Western Hemisphere from 5000 B.C. to the late nineteenth century. Signs of biological stress in childhood and of degeneration in joints and in teeth increased in the several millenia before the arrival of Columbus as populations moved into less healthy ecological environments.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 654 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (August 26, 2002)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0521801672
ISBN-13: 978-0521801676
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,036,939 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Human biologist, historians, and other social scientist have expressed enduring interest in the evolution of human health over the past several millennia. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Cedar Grove, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, United States, Native Americans, Western Hemisphere, New Mexico, North America, Ohio Valley, South Carolina, Forte Marechal Luz, Academic Press, Freedman's Cemetery, Basin of Mexico, Rio Comprido, Cambridge University Press, Highland Park, Ilha de Espinheiros, New World, Santa Elena, San Cristobal, Santa Catarina, San Francisco, Smithsonian Institution Press, American Southwest

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 90 books:

Advances in Dental Anthropology by Marc A. Kelley on 4 pages
Bodies of Evidence: Reconstructing History through Skeletal Analysis by Anne L. Grauer on page 223, page 275, and page 277
Bioarchaeology of Spanish Florida: The Impact of Colonialism (Ripley P. Bullen Series) by CLARK SPENCER LARSEN on page 436, page 438, and page 439
In the Wake of Contact: Biological Responses to Conquest by Clark Spencer Larsen on page 436, and page 437
The Basin of Mexico: The Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization (Studies in archaeology) by William T. Sanders on page 337, and Index

See all 90 books this book cites

10 books cite this book:

The Bioarchaeology of Children: Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthropology (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology) by Mary E. Lewis on 4 pages
Mismatch: Why Our World No Longer Fits Our Bodies by Peter Gluckman in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Aboriginal Health in Canada: Historical, Cultural, and Epidemiological Perspectives by James B. Waldram in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
Children of Coyote, Missionaries of Saint Francis: Indian-Spanish Relations in Colonial California, 1769-1850 by Steven W. Hackel on page 22
Human Biologists in the Archives: Demography, Health, Nutrition and Genetics in Historical Populations (Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology) by D. Ann Herring on page 94

See all 10 books citing this book

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

A Population History of North America by Michael R. Haines

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5.0 out of 5 stars Interred Within Their Bones, July 17, 2006

By	A. R. Cellura (Abbeville, SC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere (Paperback)

Buried deep within human history, voices speak to us through the bones of our ancestors. Femurs, incisors and other skeletal remains tell us stories of how well these ancients made their livings, multiplied, dodged disease, got sick, were maimed, and died.

In their grand undertaking, THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY, Professors Richard H. Steckel and Jerome C. Rose, both economic historians and anthropologists, bring together 52 scholars from the disciplines of anatomy, anthropology, demography, economic history, the health sciences, and paleontology, who act as translators of the dialects interred within our bones, and the stories they tell about the evolution of our societies and economies. An important stimulus for this extraordinary scholarship was the work of Cohen and Armelagos and their colleagues (Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture, Academic Press, 1984) that provided evidence through examination of skeletal remains for the decline of human health and longevity in the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural economies. During this period, in the cradle of agriculture, malnourishment was chiefly responsible for a decline in Eastern Mediterranean male heights from 5'10" to 5'6".

In BACKBONE, which focuses on societies of the Western Hemisphere, perhaps the most significant advances on the seminal work of Cohen and Armelagos are the system of common data recording for the many sources from antiquity through the 19th century, and the development of a health index derived from these sources that allowed more valid and reliable cross-sample comparisons. The effect is to provide an elaborate view, by analysis of population trends in a variety of physiological/ecologic responses [skeletal tissue, tooth enamel (linear enamel hypoplasias), anemia that can be read from bones (porotic hyperostosis), infectious disease prevalence (elevation of the fibrous outer periosteal layer of the bone), trauma, osteoarthritis, degenerative joint disease, tooth loss and caries], of economic circumstances that would otherwise be unavailable. Additional advances, in comparison with earlier work, are that BACKBONE significantly increases sampling size and diversity across regions and time periods, and incorporates multidisciplinary perspectives.

The nine parts of this complex and "big" book of 636 pages include sections focused on methodology, comparisons between Euro-Americans and African-Americans, Native Americans in Central America, Native Americans in North America and patterns of health in the Western Hemisphere. Specific chapters within these sections focus on the poor in the mid-nineteenth century Northeastern United States, health and nutrition in pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica, cultural longevity and biological stress in the American Southwest and much, much more. Always, the stories of these people are told from the bones they left behind.

Steckel and Rose's extraordinary contribution, THE BACKBONE OF HISTORY, will be read by virtually every researcher into the nexus between physical anthropology and economic history. It also provides a treasure trove to those more broadly interested in the social sciences, health sciences and human adaptation. These readers may also find of interest Robert William Fogel's THE ESCAPE FROM HUNGER AND PREMATURE DEATH, 1700-2100 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004), A. R. Cellura's THE GENOMIC ENVIRONMENT AND NICHE-EXPERIENCE (Cedar Springs Press, 2006) and John Komlos' STATURE, LIVING STANDARDS, AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Univ. of Chicago Press, 1994).

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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well Worth the Effort, October 29, 2002

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This is an excellent guide to the issues of health and modern civilizations.

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