Paleopathology in Perspective Bone Health and Disease through Time [Hardcover]

This book is an important resource for students of ancient disease. It successfully integrates paleopathological and modern biomedical data to provide an overview of how socio-economic and lifestyle factors affect the frequency of bone and dental diseases from prehistory to the present day. Technical jargon is kept to a minimum, each substantive chapter ends with a concise conclusions section summarizing the main points, and there is an up-to-date and extensive bibliography.The book presents a comprehensive overview of the major categories of pathological conditions observed in human skeletal remains, described in terms that newcomers to the field can appreciate. What makes it different from most texts, however, are the extensive discussions of possible factors affecting the conditions taken from modern clinical studies. Students and experienced scholars alike will appreciate this unique perspective.Paleopathology in Perspective fills a currently empty niche, particularly for advanced students. Weiss integrates biological concepts with historical and archaeological perspectives to present paleopathology in an admirably accessible fashion. She utilizes deep time perspectives to cover the ills attendant to our species upright posture and advanced age (such as degenerative maladies of the vertebral column and osteoarthritis) as well as congenital defects, infectious diseases, and our prospective future health. The result is a substantive contribution to our knowledge of human diseasepast, present, and future.Elizabeth Weiss introduces readers to how lifestyle changesin complex interaction with biology, genes, and environmentaffect health in this distinctive tour of human osteology, past and present.Our bones can reveal fascinating information about how we have lived, from the food we have eaten to our levels of activity and the infections and injuries we have suffered. Elizabeth Weiss introduces readers to how lifestylein complex interaction with biology, genes, al³)