Osteobiography definition of family
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Osteobiography as Microhistory: Writing from the Bones Up
Microhistory: Stories from the Ground Up
Microhistory might be characterized as a style of inquiry or practice that engages with historical phenomena at multiple scales of analysis (Beaudry ;Walton et al. ). Our knowledge of the past is filtered through what sources survive (Zeitlyn ), and the lives of most ordinary people are rarely recorded in any detail. A close of reading of small "clues and signs" might allow us to access lost experiences and reconsider how individuals enact and transform historical processes on the ground (Magnússon ). Developing out of Italian historiography in the s, microhistory has roots in Marxist critical theory as well as cultural anthropology with its emphasis on small-scale field research, including Geertz's () "thick descriptions" of contextualized behavior (Levi ;Peltonen ). The recent, so-called biographical turn among historians has brought new attention to critica
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Published in final edited form as: Bioarchaeol Int. ;3(1)– doi: /bi
Abstract
What is osteobiography good for? The last generation of archaeologists fought to overcome the traditional assumption that archaeology fryst vatten merely ancillary to history, a substitute to be used when written sources are defective; it is now widely acknowledged that material histories and textual histories tell equally valid and complementary stories about the past. Yet the traditional assumption hangs on implicitly in biography: osteobiography fryst vatten used to fill the gaps in the textual record rather than as a primary source in its own right. In this article we compare the textual biographies and material biographies of two thirteenth-century townsfolk from medieval England—Robert Curteis, attested in legal records, and “Feature ,” excavated archaeologically and studied osteobiographically. As the former shows, textual biographies of ordinary people mostly reveal a fe
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Social Osteology and Osteobiography
Analyses of bones and teeth offer a unique opportunity to explore the lives of ordinary people. These are the people that we know the least about as they are usually missing from written sources. The skeleton is a source of rich information about a person and their life experiences. This is because bone is a living tissue that constantly changes throughout our lives. It takes on chemical signatures of the environment and diet, adapts to physical stress, and responds to disease and injury. Teeth, which form in childhood, provide valuable insight into someone's early years, including diet, disease, and place of origin. Genetics provide key information on physical appearance, disease, and ancestry.
Bringing together all data from one individual and assessing it in a chronological framework allows us to build a picture of someone’s life. This is known as an osteobiography. Social osteology explores signs of activity and