Skeletons in Our Closet: Revealing Our Past through Bioarchaeology
Some tales can only be told by the dead. Bioarchaeologist Clark Spencer Larsen, while very much alive, has spent thousands of hours communing with the bones of our ancestors; though somewhat inarticulate, they reveal vast unguessed knowledge of our past.Skeletons in Our Closet, his report from the field, gives the reader a backstage pass to American natural history museums, showing what the displays can only hint at: concrete details of the lifestyles of pioneers and pre-contact Americans etched indelibly into their remains. Larsen pulls no technical punches in his writing, though he is careful to define his terms clearly as he proceeds. Obviously enthusiastic about his work, he infuses the reader with interest without evangelizing.What has he found? Some of his results are merely interesting, such as eating and working habits ground into dental remains. Others are more controversial. Larsen finds evidence that not all hunter-gatherer cultures had an easier time of it than their agricultural successors, as popular anthropological opinion holds. While he can't speak for all of the dead, those pre-agricultural people he's studied seemed to suffer more greatly from disease, malnutrition, and injury than did their descendents.  Meticulously detailed,Skeletons in Our Closetis essential for any reader interested in America's unwritten history.--Rob Lightner--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.