Bioarchaeology of Frontiers and Borderlands presents a series of cases addressing how living on or interacting with the frontier can affect health and socioeconomic status. The goal is to explore how people in the past might have maintained, created, or manipulated their identity, while living in a place of liminality, stuck in between worlds. The zone of “in-betweenness,” of demarcation between two or more spheres of influence, is a very dynamic and potentially violent place. This book aims to explore how different groups stuck in these zones were affected, how they interacted with the differ ... More

Bioarchaeology of Frontiers and Borderlands presents a series of cases addressing how living on or interacting with the frontier can affect health and socioeconomic status. The goal is to explore how people in the past might have maintained, created, or manipulated their identity, while living in a place of liminality, stuck in between worlds. The zone of “in-betweenness,” of demarcation between two or more spheres of influence, is a very dynamic and potentially violent place. This book aims to explore how different groups stuck in these zones were affected, how they interacted with the different worlds, and how they lived their lives on the “edge.” The cases presented address questions of how living on the frontier might have affected the health and disease of these groups, how conflict and violence might have been expressed, and how social inequalities might have been manifested. This volume also aims to emphasize the ways that frontiers and borderlands are liminal zones that demand a reconceptualization of many of our most deeply held assumptions about the relationships between people, place, identity, and culture.