Bioarchaeology of Native American Adaptation in the Spanish Borderlands

by Brenda J. Baker (Editor), Lisa Kealhofer (Editor)

“An important addition to the growing literature on American Indian-Eropean contact in North America, offering fresh perspectives on the variability of native societies’ responses to contact.” –from the Foreword, by Jerald T. Milanich, Florida Museum of Natural History “The only recent volume that explicitly concentrates on biocultural contact effects based on bioarchaeology, paleopathology, and ethnohistory…and [the only one] to stress so strongly that more than disease effects were involved in the depopulation of Native Americans.” –Rebecca Storey, University of Houston Most researchers of the European settlement of North America assume that Native American populations were decimated solely and uniformly by introduced disease. These authors challenge that assumption, demonstrating that Native American societies responded to European encroachment in complex and varied ways. They draw on data from population case studies in what is now the southern United States to establish convincingly that archaeological and bioanthropological research are powerful tools for cultural interpretation.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 7, 1996