Session: #688

Theme & Session Format

Theme:
1. Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts
Session format:
Regular session

Title & Content

Title:
Bioarchaeology of Girlhood, Maidenhood, and Motherhood in Past Societies. Reconstructing Women’s Life-History through Morphology, Histology, and Biogeochemistry
Content:
From an evolutionary and biocultural perspective, reconstructing biological life histories in humans – e.g., growth trajectories, health, mobility, diet, reproductive behaviours, fertility and mortality rates – has been crucial for understanding how ancient populations adapted to ecological, cultural and social changes over time. While the use of analytical tools from life history theory and the application of cutting-edge techniques in the study of ancient human remains have allowed us to explore many aspects of past human biology, women’s reproductive life histories in ancient human populations have received scant attention. Consequently, relatively little is known about the evolution of female reproduction in past societies or how transitions from maidenhood to womanhood to motherhood changed through time.
This session invites state-of-the-art bioarchaeological research on women’s life histories, mother-infant dyad, adolescence, and female rites of passage. The aim is to explore the nature and timing of female puberty, childbirth and womanhood in past societies. We welcome papers which use morphological and/or histological and/or biochemical analyses of human mineralised tissues (bones and teeth) from ancient women and their offspring in order to explore variability in the timing of female puberty, women’s reproductive histories and womanhood across human history.
Keywords:
Female puberty, women’s reproductive life-history, maternal-foetal health, skeletal and dental morphology, dental histology, biochemical markers
Session associated with MERC:
no
Session associated with CIfA:
no
Session associated with SAfA:
no
Session associated with CAA:
no
Session associated with DGUF:
no
Session associated with other:

Organisers

Main organiser:
Melania Gigante (Italy) 1
Co-organisers:
Alessia Nava (Poland) 2
Affiliations:
1. University of Padua
2. Polish Academy of Sciences