The Backbone of History Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere [Hardcover]

An assessment of skeletal evidence on health indicators, to assess chronic conditions that affected Western populations.The Backbone of History 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.The Backbone of History 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.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.Part I: 1. Introduction; Part II. Methodology: 2. Reconstructing health profiles from skeletal remains Alan H. Goodman and Debra L. Martin; 3. A health index from skeletal remains Richard H. Steckel, Paul W. Sciulli and Jerome C. Rose; 4. Paleodemography of the Americas Robert McCaa; Part III. Euro-Americans and African Americans in North America: 5. The health of the middle class: the St. Thomas Anglican church cemetery project Shelly Saunders, Ann Herring, Larry Sawchuck, Gerry Boyce, Rob Hoppa and Susan Klepp; 6. The poor in the mid-nineteenth century Northeastern United States l-