Bioarchaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas: Its Origins and Scope

Abstract

The results of over 70 years of African Diasporic bioarchaeology are discussed and explained as emerging from distinct interests and traditions of African Diasporan studies, sociocultural anthropology, history, physical anthropology, and archaeology, in that chronological order. Physical anthropology is the core discipline of African-American bioarchaeology, yet it has been the least informed by cultural and historical literatures. Forensic approaches to bioarchaeology construct a past that fails to be either cultural or historical, while biocultural approaches are emerging that construct a more human history of African Diasporic communities. The involvement of African Americans, both as clients and as sources of scholarship, has begun to transform bioarchaeology as in the example of the New York African Burial Ground. The social history of the field examined here emphasizes the scholarship of diasporans themselves, and critiques a bioarchaeology that, until recently, has had little relevance to the people whose history bioarchaeologists construct.

Repositioning the Cobb human archive: The merger of a skeletal collection and its texts

“…As such, the following literature review focuses on the latest iteration of biohistorical of African descendant groups (see Blakey, 2001 for an exhaustive review).…”

“…However, the potential data sources that can be applied to the study of this sample, including the census, allows for the possibility of tracing individual and group routes to the District. In addition to a more robust attribution of health and disease to particular spaces and times, the previous literature review demonstrates the longstanding precedent for placing health and disease patterns within the broader context of migration and other large-scale social formations (Barrett and Blakey, 2012;Blakey, 2001Blakey, , 2004Cobb, 1935;de la Cova, 2010de la Cova, , 2011. In keeping with more recent approaches to studying human skeletal samples, we will also employ osteobiographical analyses to examine the local and broader aspects of individual routes to the District and associated health and disease patterns.…”

Theoretical and Methodological Approaches to Understanding Human Migration Patterns and their Utility in Forensic Human Identification Cases

“…The same cultural focus was noted in early archaeological studies on African diasporas, which comprised the bulk of these initial diaspora studies [40]; Webster (2010 [41]) provides a thorough review of the African diaspora, an event in which over 10 million Africans were enslaved and transported by force to the Western Hemisphere during the 400 year-long Atlantic slave trade [11]. Recent diaspora work has placed more of a bioarchaeological emphasis on health status and lifestyle of the immigrants (see [42]). …”

Early African America: Archaeological Studies of Significance and Diversity

“…Such relatively late-arriving captives provide additional evidence for an ''Africanist'' perspective concerning potential cultural developments among African and African-American populations in the United States. (1) Bioarchaeology, mortuary practices, and physiological life histories Physiological analyses of archaeological skeletal remains have made significant advances in our understanding of African-American history (Blakey 2001). Studies of health-care practices, diet, and culinary traditions evident in the remains of African-American residential, work, social, and congregational spaces also have been highly informative.…”