Henneberg, R.

Journal of Biosocial Science

English

Adelaide Research & Scholarship

 PUBLISHED VERSION       Henneberg, Renata Jolanta.  The Bioarchaeology of children. Perspectives from biological and forensic anthropology Journal of Biosocial Science, 2009; 41(3):431. Copyright © 2009 Cambridge University Press                 http://hdl.handle.net/2440/58770  PERMISSIONS http://journals.cambridge.org/action/stream?pageId=4088&level=2#4408  The right to post the definitive version of the contribution as published at Cambridge Journals Online (in PDF or HTML form) in the Institutional Repository of the institution in which they worked at the time the paper was first submitted, or (for appropriate journals) in PubMed Central or UK PubMed Central, no sooner than one year after first publication of the paper in the journal, subject to file availability and provided the posting includes a prominent statement of the full bibliographical details, a copyright notice in the name of the copyright holder (Cambridge University Press or the sponsoring Society, as appropriate), and a link to the online edition of the journal at Cambridge Journals Online.  Inclusion of this definitive version after one year in Institutional Repositories outside of the institution in which the contributor worked at the time the paper was first submitted will be subject to the additional permission of Cambridge University Press (not to be unreasonably withheld).  2nd  May 2011  J.biosoc.Sci, (2009) 41, 000–000Book reviewsThe Bioarchaeology of Children. Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthro-pology. Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology. By Mary E.Lewis. Pp. 255. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007.) £70.00, ISBN0-521-83602-6, hardback. doi: 10.1017/S002193200800326X.This book is a comprehensive overview of what is known about child and adolescentbiology in past populations and discusses problems associated with studyingnon-adult skeletons in an archaeological and forensic context. In nine chapters, in aclear and easy-to-follow style, the author covers issues such as the concept ofchildhood in the historical perspective, the status of children in past societies,infanticide and problems related to palaeodemography (i.e. the preservation ofdelicate bones), child abuse in forensic and archaeological records, and growth anddevelopment in the past and present.The large part of the book consists of a discussion of a variety of methods usedin non-adult osteology and forensic anthropology. This shows particularly well thediﬃculties encountered by researchers and forensic practitioners while studyingnon-adult remains, beginning with the fundamentals in both ﬁelds – age and sexassessment. Perhaps the most controversial is the assessment of ancestry in theforensic context. This part of the book also reﬂects the dilemmas the biologicalanthropologist involved in forensic identiﬁcation has to deal with, and showsinaccuracies, encroaching upon terminology used in both ﬁelds in an attempt at someclassiﬁcation, such as biological aﬃnity, geographical aﬃliation, ancestry, and evenerrors in naming ‘traditional’ groups (Caucasian instead of Caucasoid, p. 55).Recent progress in the identiﬁcation of pathological conditions in non-adultskeletons is presented in chapter 7, and trauma, a subject especially important forforensic anthropologists, is discussed in chapter 8. There are several summary tables,such as Table 2·1 with a list of archaeological sites with a large number of sub-adultskeletons, Table 4·2 with data on growth for past populations or Table 5·1 with childmortality data for 42 archaeological samples.With over a thousand references (58 pages), the majority of the signiﬁcantliterature published in English on the bioarchaeology of children is represented.Unfortunately, only a few papers and books in languages other than English arementioned. Perhaps, this is a task for the next and updated edition of this wellwritten, informative and much needed book. Anybody working in the ﬁeld orstudying biological and forensic anthropology, and also archaeologists, will ﬁnd thisbook a very welcome addition to their basic library.R J. HUniversity of Adelaide,Australia1

The Bioarchaeology of children. Perspectives from biological and forensic anthropology

Renata J. Henneberg

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The Bioarchaeology of Children. Perspectives from Biological and Forensic Anthropology. Cambridge Studies in Biological and Evolutionary Anthropology. By Mary E. Lewis. Pp. 255. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2007.) £70.00, ISBN 0-521-83602-6, hardback.

The Bioarchaeology of children. Perspectives from biological and forensic anthropology

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