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Evolutionary medicine has been steadily gaining recognition, not
only in modern clinical research and practice, but also in
bioarchaeology (the study of archaeological human remains) and
especially its sub-discipline, palaeopathology. To date, however,
palaeopathology has not been necessarily recognised as particularly
useful to the field and most key texts in evolutionary medicine
have tended to overlook it. This novel text is the first to
highlight the benefits of using palaeopathological research to
answer questions about the evolution of disease and its application
to current health problems, as well as the benefits of using
evolutionary thinking in medicine to help interpret historical
disease processes. It presents hypothesis-driven research by
experts in biological anthropology (including palaeopathology),
medicine, health sciences, and evolutionary medicine through a
series of unique case studies that address specific research
questions. Each chapter has been co-authored by two or more
researchers with different disciplinary perspectives in order to
provide original, insightful, and interdisciplinary contributions
that will provide new insights for both palaeopathology and
evolutionary medicine. Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine is
intended for graduate level students and professional researchers
in a wide range of fields including the humanities (history),
social sciences (anthropology, archaeology, palaeopathology,
geography), and life sciences (medicine and biology). Relevant
courses include evolutionary medicine, evolutionary anthropology,
medical anthropology, and palaeopathology.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the leading cause of death
worldwide today, but are not just a modern phenomenon. To explore
the deep roots of CVDs in human history, this book, for the first
time, brings together bioarchaeological evidence from different
periods, as old as 5000 BC, and geographic locations from Alaska to
Northern Africa. Experts in their fields showcase the powerful tool
set available to bioarchaeology, which allows a more comprehensive
reconstruction of the human past through evidence for disease. The
tools include aDNA and histological analyses and digital imaging
techniques for studying skeletal and mummified human remains. The
insights gained from these studies are not only of value to
historical research but also demonstrate how the science of
archaeological human remains can provide the long view of the
history of disease and contributes to modern biomedical research
within the context of evolutionary medicine.
Using human skeletal remains, this volume traces health, workload
and violence in the European population over the past 2,000 years.
Health was surprisingly good for people who lived during the early
Medieval Period. The Plague of Justinian of the sixth century was
ultimately beneficial for health because the smaller population had
relatively more resources that contributed to better living
conditions. Increasing population density and inequality in the
following centuries imposed an unhealthy diet - poor in protein -
on the European population. With the onset of the Little Ice Age in
the late Middle Ages, a further health decline ensued, which was
not reversed until the nineteenth century. While some aspects of
health declined, other attributes improved. During the early modern
period, interpersonal violence (outside of warfare) declined
possibly because stronger states and institutions were able to
enforce compromise and cooperation. European health over the past
two millennia was hence multifaceted in nature.
Evolutionary medicine has been steadily gaining recognition, not
only in modern clinical research and practice, but also in
bioarchaeology (the study of archaeological human remains) and
especially its sub-discipline, palaeopathology. To date, however,
palaeopathology has not been necessarily recognised as particularly
useful to the field and most key texts in evolutionary medicine
have tended to overlook it. This novel text is the first to
highlight the benefits of using palaeopathological research to
answer questions about the evolution of disease and its application
to current health problems, as well as the benefits of using
evolutionary thinking in medicine to help interpret historical
disease processes. It presents hypothesis-driven research by
experts in biological anthropology (including palaeopathology),
medicine, health sciences, and evolutionary medicine through a
series of unique case studies that address specific research
questions. Each chapter has been co-authored by two or more
researchers with different disciplinary perspectives in order to
provide original, insightful, and interdisciplinary contributions
that will provide new insights for both palaeopathology and
evolutionary medicine. Palaeopathology and Evolutionary Medicine is
intended for graduate level students and professional researchers
in a wide range of fields including the humanities (history),
social sciences (anthropology, archaeology, palaeopathology,
geography), and life sciences (medicine and biology). Relevant
courses include evolutionary medicine, evolutionary anthropology,
medical anthropology, and palaeopathology.
Through an unprecedented multidisciplinary and global approach,
this book documents the dramatic several-thousand-year history of
leprosy using bioarchaeological, clinical, and historical
information from a wide variety of contexts, dispelling many
long-standing myths about the disease. Drawing on her 30 years of
research on the infection, Charlotte Roberts begins by outlining
its bacterial causes, how it spreads, and how it affects the body.
She then considers its diagnosis and treatment, both historically
and in the present. She also looks at the methods and tools used by
paleopathologists to identify signs of leprosy in skeletons.
Examining evidence in human remains from many countries,
particularly in Europe and including Britain, Hungary, and Sweden,
Roberts demonstrates that those affected were usually buried in the
same cemeteries as their communities, contrary to the popular
belief that they were all ostracized or isolated from society into
leprosy hospitals. Other myths addressed by Roberts include the
assumptions that leprosy can't be cured, that leprosy is no longer
a problem today, and that what is called "leprosy" in the Bible is
the same illness as the disease with that name now. Roberts
concludes by projecting the future of leprosy, arguing that
researchers need to study the disease through an ethically grounded
evolutionary perspective. Importantly, she advises against use of
the word "leper" to avoid perpetuating stigma today surrounding
people with the infection and resulting disabilities. Leprosy will
stand as the authoritative source on the subject for years to come.
A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the
Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by
Clark Spencer Larsen.
Thirty-seven papers, from a conference held in Bradford in 1999,
examine leprosy from all angles: as a historical disease
overwhelmed by stigma and as a condition that is still prevalent in
much of the world despite new medications. Contributors discuss the
medical diagnosis and treatment of leprosy, its effects on the
skeleton using archaeological and historical evidence, its
occurrence in the archaeological record worldwide and detecting its
traces in DNA. Case studies are taken from across the ancient,
medieval and modern worlds, including the Near East, Roman Egypt,
medieval England, Wales and Ireland, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia,
Asia and the Pacific.
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