Description
This book represents a unique and valuable contribution to public scientific education, to bridging the gaps in our society between 'science' and 'history', and most importantly, to illustrating just how fully the dead can tell the stories of their lives to us, the living. -- Mary Lucas Powell, University of Kentucky If my ancient Greek ancestors, who defined the skeleton as 'withered' or 'dried up,' had read Clark Spencer Larsen's Skeletons in Our Closet, they would surely have reconsidered their description of the term. Larsen brings the bones of all our ancestors to life. His interpretation of bioarchaeology provides one of the best treatments of this important topic. -- George Armelagos, Emory University Larsen uses easy-to-read language to examine how a bioarchaeologist goes about the business of sifting clues to the past from human skeletons--literally, the business of making the long dead tell us something about what life was like in the past. -- M.J. O'Brien, University of Michigan
About the Author
Clark Spencer Larsen is the chair of the Department of Anthropology and Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Ohio State University. He is a former president of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and is currently Editor in Chief of the American journal of Physical Anthropology. He is the author of Bioarcheology: Interpreting Behavior from the Human Skeleton.
Reviews
"In great detail, [Larsen] demonstrates how a competent expert may read an enormous amount from the subtle patterns present on bones... There is much in [the book] to provoke debate."--Publishers Weekly "Osteo-archaeology has certainly developed an impressive array of scientific tests that can be used to identify physical and biological stresses that is turn reflect lifestyle. Larsen goes into great detail to explain these methods and show how they can be used. His major theme and concern is the transition from a hunter-gatherer to a farming lifestyle some 10,000 years ago."--Hedley Swain, The Times Higher Education Supplement "The dead speak in Clark Spencer Larsen's new book. Chattering through worn teeth, gesturing with ossified limbs, theirs is the testimony of articulated bones... Larsen shows how he and other researchers in the emerging field of bioarchaeology have used skeletal evidence to challenge the tradition of equating the rise of agriculture with the betterment of the human condition."--Nina C. Ayoub, Chronicle of Higher Education
Book Information
ISBN 9780691092843
Author Clark Spencer Larsen
Format Paperback
Page Count 272
Imprint Princeton University Press
Publisher Princeton University Press
Weight(grams) 369g