The Archaeology of Medicine and Healthcare

Archaeological investigations of medicine and care have tended to examine the obvious and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as discrete practices, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume highlights the importance of medical worldviews in understanding healthcare and medical practice in the past. It brings together ten chapters that argue for greater integration between archaeology and the medical and environmental humanities, and presents suggestions for future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, exposome studies, and ecological public health, microbiome studies, and historical disability studies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 186 pages
Publication date: 09 June 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The preservation of human well-being and the intricate processes that underpin it, encompassing medicine, medical intervention, and caregiving, constitute the very essence of human societies. Nevertheless, archaeological explorations of medicine and care have predominantly focused on the observable and explicit manifestations of medical treatment as distinct practices occurring within specific contexts, rather than as broader indicators of medical worldviews and health beliefs. This volume underscores the significance of medical worldviews in gaining a deeper understanding of healthcare and medical practices in the past.

The book comprises ten chapters, each exploring diverse themes such as the bioarchaeology of Neanderthal healthcare, Roman air quality, decontamination strategies at Australian quarantine centers, and local resistance to colonial medical structures in South America. Within these chapters, the contributors advocate for a stronger integration of archaeology with the medical and environmental humanities, while the Introduction offers insights into future engagement with emerging discourse in community and public health, environmental and planetary health, genetic and epigenetic medicine, exposome studies, ecological public health, microbiome studies, and historical disability studies.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of World Archaeology, a renowned journal dedicated to the study of human history and culture through archaeological research.

Weight: 520g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367759247