Anthropology Essay on Death, Burial and Afterlife

Most anthropologists together with some archeologists have frequently questioned the reasons for excavation of skeletons. The wonder the kind of gain that can accrue from the troubling of human interments. Questions as such are best answered by Becker in Human Skeletal Remains from the Pre-Colonial Greek Emporeum of Pithekoussai on Ischia: Culture Contact in Italy from the Early Viii to The 11 Century BC. The author shows the range of information as well as interpretations that are essentially attainable from the remains of human skeletal, demonstrating how such kind of data can play a part in the establishment of solutions to different problems of anthropology. In addition, there are descriptions and evaluations of fundamental methods of the excavation and examination of skeletal.

The writer has quite essential information in the text that range from reviews of the data and techniques that are essential for the process of excavation and description of the skeletal remains of humans and for the attainment of reliable estimations of gender, stature and age at which death occurred. The information in the text should be in a position of enhancing the capacity of those who are not specialists to carry out the excavation of skeletal and preliminary examination. There are also more discussions regarding the types of information than should be gathered from the most appropriate samples done by skeletal biologists who are believed to have vast experience and expertise.

Nevertheless, the information provided is a comprehensive overview and there are several aspects of it, which have been given much focus or considerations by other authors and anthropologists elsewhere. The author has an all-inclusive review of available literature. There are references given in the text so that those who are interested in additional data and information regarding particular subjects or topics can have them at their own convenience. For easy comprehension by the non-specialists in the field of anthropology and biology, the writer has tried to avoid jargons or technical terminologies. However, it is not easy to achieve accurate data and examinations without the use of the real names of individual bones as well as some other skeletal landmarks. Therefore, some of the technical terminologies and words used in the study could not be avoided because they were very essential and could not be replaced. Whereas it is quite diffident in its intentions or objectives, we find that this study offers a clarity that is not possible to find in any other work on the same subject.

Nonetheless, information about sex and age of the subjects that Becker finds in his study is comprehensive and gives valid conclusions. When this data or information is compared with those that can be obtained from the assortments of the British Museum or any other place that is respected and recognized, might offer proof of cultural, regional or even chronological variations in the employment of glass vessels as urns for the bones of those that had died.

The study that Becker conducted advances the interest that the Pithrkoussai excavators established by utilizing the modern scientific methods to amplify the ability of finding solutions to archeological problems. The researcher carried out the skeletal materials at the Villa Arbusto in Lacco Ameno, Ischia where they were kept. The study involved 112 cremations that were available, which were recovered from that section of the area of burial, which include the earliest interments at Pithekoussai, basically dating from the period of 750 to 675 BC. In addition, it includes two later Roman examples of the cremations buried over the consequent or following five centuries.

The major objective that the researcher sought to establish the basic information of importance to the archeologists and anthropologists, which include age and sex of every person, the possibility that several cremations or even burials were put in the same tomb, and some other important information in the reconstruction of culture and the history of culture (Buikstra and Ubelaker, 1994). The establishment of gender is critical for further examination of human remains that are unidentified, since all the methods of examination of age and determination of the stature are not the same for females and males. For instance, the innominate bone that consists of the pelvis, provides the most absolute features (Baccino, Ubelaker, Hayek, and Zerilli, 1999). The second most significant bone in the femur.

However, surprisingly, the skull that is usually recognized for several years as being the most discrimination one, is nor perceived as having the least significance. Establishment of gender from the pre-adult bones is instead not quite easy to determine (Franklin, 2010). Some archeologists together with anthropologists attempt to compare phases of tooth calcification and those of maturation. Their assumption is that in the males, there is more maturity in the post-cranial as compared to females, whereas there is nearly the same rate in the tooth calcification. Since the method that Becker uses in conducing his study can be quite complicated for an individual that is not experienced in the field, it is highly advisable that the establishment of sex be limited from the skeletal remains that are not mature (Schmitz, Serre, Bonani, Feine, Hillgruber, Krainitzki, Paabo and Smith, 2002). However, for the researcher here, since he is really experienced, using skeletal remains that are both mature and immature cannot threated the validity and reliability of the findings if the research.

The awareness of methodology of research includes the assurance of the potential future users of research that, the prospect of variations in the studys conclusions and recommendations is always available for future researches. The credibility and accuracy of collected data is measured by two factors i.e. reliability and validity. Reliability was one of the particular matters of concern in this study. According to Ortner, (2003) "reliability is concerned with the question of whether the results of a study are repeatable". The outcomes demonstrated that there was a strong positive correlation between both researches, which confirmed their reliability. According to Pietrusewsky and Toomay (2002), Validity is the extent of the collected data and used methods to be relevant for the desired purposes of measuring a social phenomenon. The validity in the research was achieved via presentation of non-ambiguous as well as supportive, and clear results to the studys readers. The validity of the study was also improved by the choice of correct data collection methods, which involved study of 112 cremations.

Becker managed to produce a manual that would improve the appreciation of all types of remains of humans and outlined the processes of excavation, processing as well as analysis. He tackles both the common matters and issues the come up and most of the problems that might be experienced. The study gives professionals and neophytes to enjoy as well as appreciate the research on the remains of human skeletal. Particularly, his explanations of dentition cultural manipulation is comprehensive. This is good for those studying science, crime buffs as well as those who have interest in the clues that individuals leave behind in their bones. Findings from this study, together with archeological information and more latest excavations, we are given interesting insights into the arrangement and demography of the ancient community, and health matters in the ancient times.

Bibliographies

Beck, L.A., 1995. Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains. Edited by Jane E. Buikstra and Douglas H. Ubelaker. 272 pp. Fayetteville: Arkansas Archeological Survey Research Series No. 44, 1994.

Ortner, D.J., 2003. Identification of pathological conditions in human skeletal remains. Academic Press.

Buikstra, J.E. and Ubelaker, D.H., 1994. Standards for data collection from human skeletal remains: proceedings of a seminar at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Pietrusewsky, M. and Toomay, M., 2002. HUMAN SKELETAL REMAINS.

Baccino, E., Ubelaker, D.H., Hayek, L.A. and Zerilli, A., 1999. Evaluation of seven methods of estimating age at death from mature human skeletal remains. Journal of Forensic Science, 44(5), pp.931-936.

Neves, W.A., Prous, A., Gonzalez-Jose, R., Kipnis, R. and Powell, J., 2003. Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Santana do Riacho, Brazil: implications for the settlement of the New World. Journal of Human Evolution, 45(1), pp.19-42.

Edwards, H.G.M., Farwell, D.W., De Faria, D.L.A., Monteiro, A.M.F., Afonso, M.C., De Blasis, P. and Eggers, S., 2001. Raman spectroscopic study of 3000-year-old human skeletal remains from a sambaqui, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 32(1), pp.17-22.

Franklin, D., 2010. Forensic age estimation in human skeletal remains: current concepts and future directions. Legal Medicine, 12(1), pp.1-7.

Schmitz, R.W., Serre, D., Bonani, G., Feine, S., Hillgruber, F., Krainitzki, H., Paabo, S. and Smith, F.H., 2002. The Neandertal type site revisited: interdisciplinary investigations of skeletal remains from the Neander Valley, Germany. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99(20), pp.13342-13347.