Publisher's Synopsis
Colonized Bodies, Worlds Transformed represents a new generation of contact and colonialism studies, expanding upon a traditional focus on the health of conquered peoples toward how extraordinary biological and political transformations are incorporated into the human body, reflecting behavior, identity, and adaptation. These globally diverse case studies demonstrate that the effects of conquest reach farther than was ever thought before-to both the colonized and the colonizers. Cultural exchange occurred between both groups, transforming social identities, foodways, and social structures at points of contact and beyond. Contributors to this volume analyze skeletal remains and burial patterns from never-before-studied regions in the Americas to the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, resulting in a new synthesis of historical archaeology and bioarchaeology.
