The Routledge Handbook of the Bioarchaeology of Climate and Environmental Change

This handbook explores how past climate and environmental changes have impacted human health,well-being,migration,and interpersonal violence,using bioarchaeological evidence to understand the human experience. It highlights the relevance of bioarchaeology to contemporary challenges and emphasizes the need to consider historical and socio-cultural factors in planning for a warmer world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 552 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This comprehensive handbook delves into the intricate human responses to historical climatic and environmental shifts, exploring their profound impacts on disease patterns, nutritional status, migration, and interpersonal violence. By employing the field of bioarchaeology, which involves the study of archaeological human skeletons, this book offers direct evidence of the human experience of past climate and environmental changes, serving as a valuable complement to paleoclimate, historical, and archaeological approaches to future global warming. Spanning 27 chapters authored by esteemed experts from diverse time periods and geographical regions, this book addresses hypotheses regarding the effects of climate and environmental changes on human health and well-being, factors that promote resilience, and the circumstances that increase the likelihood of migration or interpersonal violence.

The volume prominently emphasizes the potential relevance of bioarchaeological analysis to contemporary challenges by organizing the chapters into a framework aligned with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Recognizing the intricate interplay between humans as biological organisms and their deep connection to Earth's ecosystems, the book also acknowledges the role of historical and socio-cultural factors, socioeconomic inequality, urbanization, community mobility, and social institutions in shaping long-term outcomes for human communities.

Packed with a wealth of nuanced perspectives on human-environmental relations, this book is an essential resource for students of environmental archaeology, bioarchaeology, and the history of disease. Moreover, its longer view of contemporary challenges will interest readers in public health, public policy, and planning, fostering a deeper understanding of the complex dynamics shaping our world.

Weight: 1020g
Dimension: 246 x 174 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367560386