Evaluating Evidence in Biological Anthropology : The Strange and the Familiar

Taking a critical perspective to the field, this book challenges how evidence in biological anthropology is discovered, collected and interpreted. It encourages researchers and students in anthropology and related disciplines to de-familiarize themselves from well-known methods and develop novel, multidisciplinary approaches.

Biological anthropology is a diverse field, with countless research methods and techniques in different sub-disciplines. This book takes a critical perspective to the current state of the field, exploring theory and practice in paleoanthropology, bioarchaeology, and ecology. Contributors challenge how evidence is discovered, collected and interpreted, and explain that researchers gain insights by de-familiarizing themselves from well-known methods and taking a different perspective - ''making the familiar strange''. The book covers how researchers'' biases and assumptions affect the interpretation of topics such as human evolution and population movements; race, health, and disability; bodies and embodiment; and landscapes and ecology. A final chapter includes a critical assessment of new thinking about technology, in addition to the multilayered and complex nature of both research questions and evidence. This is an insightful text for researchers and graduate students in anthropology, biology, ecology, history and philosophy of science.