IN THE WAKE OF CONTACT BIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO CONQUEST

In the Wake of Contact Biological Responses to Conquest Clark Spencer Larsen and George R. Milner, Editors The Columbian Quincentennial has sparked a new wave of research into the effects of European expansionism on the indigenous peoples of the Americas and Pacific Islands. This volume offers an authoritative overview of recent bioanthropological investigations of the demographic and epidemiologic consequences of the European influx, encompassing such areas as disease transmission, dietary changes, and cultural impact. Each chapter in the book focuses on either a specific geographic region or ethnic population. Assembling data from archaeological and skeletal evidence, the text provides a detailed account of the complex changes experienced by a population over time. The book considers not only the direct effect of the arriving Europeans, but also examines how precontact developments within a society dynamically affected the way it responded to conquest. This volume explores such topics as:
* Late prehistoric and early historic diet in gulf coast Florida
* Trade, contact, and female health in northeast Nebraska
* Historic epidemics of the American Pueblos
* The decline of the Chumash Indian population
* Biological effects of European contact on Easter Island
* An osteological assessment of health and disease in precontact and historic Hawaii
In the Wake of Contact: Biological Responses to Conquest is a text of major importance to the scientific study of the results of New World/Old World contact. This work provides a compelling new look at the age of conquest that will prove both fascinating and insightful for anthropologists, archaeologists, and population biologists.

Clark Spencer Larsen is Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Chair of the Department of Anthropology at The Ohio State University. He has served as president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and as editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology. He is the author or editor of more than 25 books and monographs, including Advances in Dental Anthropology, Bioarchaeology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton, Skeletons in Our Closet: Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeology, and Our Origins: Discovering Physical Anthropology.

Partial table of contents:

Late Prehistoric and Early Historic Diet in Gulf Coast Florida (D. Hutchinson & L. Norr).

Evidence from Ossuaries: The Effect of Contact on the Health of Iroquoians (S. Pfeiffer & S. Fairgrieve).

Historic Epidemics of the American Pueblos (A. Palkovich).

The Decline of the Chumash Indian Population (P. Walker & J. Johnson).

Health and Death at Tipu (M. Cohen, et al.).

Biological Disruption in the Early Colonial Period at Lamanai (C. White, et al.).

Biological Effects of European Contact on Easter Island (D. Owsley, et al.).

Index.