14 DAY TRIAL // Bioarchaeology is a relatively new field of science, which focuses its efforts on understanding how ancient people lived their daily lives. Its goal is to piece together a more humanistic view of old societies, than a rigid, scientific one. The Arizona State University is already involved in this work.
ASU bioarchaeologist Christopher Stojanowski is one of the growing numbers of experts who analyze bones in search for indications on how an old person's live may have looked like. These experts also look for signs as to how that person died, and how society reacted to their demise.
Whenever Stojanowski examines a preserved skeleton, or fossilized remains, he looks for signs of disease, injuries and inherited physical features. He also seeks to determine what type of nutrition and diets that ancient person employed.
The goal here is to focus on a specific area – in his case North Africa and the southeastern parts of the United States – and analyze as many individuals as possible. In time, the accumulating data will paint a comprehensive picture of the origins and lifestyle of people living in these areas.
“Ethnogenesis – the emergence of a people – is a complex topic and not typically considered in bioarchaeology,” explains the scientist, who holds an appointment as an associate professor in the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' School of Human Evolution and Social Change.
According to the scientists, not all of archeology should be focused on providing a historic and descriptive view of ancient people. “You can use evolutionary analyses to say something a bit more humanistic about the human past,” he details.
Thus far, the researcher has focused his efforts on deciphering ethnogenesis in the colonial southeast, especially in 17th century Florida and surrounding areas. A book he wrote on the topic won him the 2011 Southern Anthropological Society’s James Mooney Prize.
At this point, Stojanowski explains, he plans to move his work to North Africa, an area that he says may provide experts with more knowledge on old lifestyles. The upcoming studies will look at human populations from yet another perspective.
“While working with historic populations has been interesting, I can’t help but think about the fact that most of human existence was spent in smaller hunter-gatherer societies, and my work in North Africa focuses on these peoples,” the ASU professor concludes.