Featuring a wealth of case studies on human skulls recovered from ethnographic and archaeological contexts around the world, this book focuses on the question of whose skulls and heads were collected and modified and why, whether as ancestors or enemies, as insiders or outsiders, as males, females or children. This volume includes discussions of osteological examinations, visual descriptions, iconography, taphonomy, and DNA, x-ray and isotope analyses to determine, for example, whether the skulls belonged to ancestors or enemies, as local or non-local residents. Emphasizing social identity and ... More

Featuring a wealth of case studies on human skulls recovered from ethnographic and archaeological contexts around the world, this book focuses on the question of whose skulls and heads were collected and modified and why, whether as ancestors or enemies, as insiders or outsiders, as males, females or children. This volume includes discussions of osteological examinations, visual descriptions, iconography, taphonomy, and DNA, x-ray and isotope analyses to determine, for example, whether the skulls belonged to ancestors or enemies, as local or non-local residents. Emphasizing social identity and the use of the body in ritual, this book includes varied approaches to heads and skulls as both biological objects and as material culture. Bioarchaeological discussions of these skulls shed light on questions of identity as well as on cultural, economic, and political practices within past societies. Whether decorated, disembodied, or deformed, collected for display or hidden, or otherwise modified or curated, skulls, and their study serve to illustrate the potential of the abundance of information that can be obtained from a combined analysis of this notable part of the human body.