Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
by its environment (physical and cultural) is necessary, making osteology a required subject
even for demographers whose main interest is running robust statistical analyses.
If you have not yet taken graduate level courses in skeletal biology, osteology,
and
osteom-
etry, now would be a great time to start. Osteology courses focusing on fragments in partic-
ular are suggested. There are increasingly more field schools with either a component or an
emphasis on bioarchaeology (typically outside the United States), which are tailored to
aspiring skeletal biologists. These offer the student an opportunity to learn how to properly
excavate skeletal remains in addition to how to curate and later analyze those remains. For an
anthropologist with an interest in skeletal biology, a field school is indispensible in terms of
the methodological skill set that you will acquire.
We have learned from experience that the best way to learn a subject is by teaching the
subject. Explaining how to identify or analyze bones in addition to explaining anthropolog-
ical concepts to other people will help to solidify your own knowledge base. Therefore, you
should jump at any opportunity to teach anthropology
d
volunteer as a teaching assistant in
the osteology lab or seek out teaching assistantship positions.
In addition to knowing your bones, you
must
be familiar with the literature. As made clear
throughout this volume, science builds on what has come before. You are not the first person
to do a project in skeletal biology, nor will you be the last. The foundation for your project has
been laid by your professors and by their professors before them. As a result, the only way to
contextualize your particular project is via thorough knowledge of previous work in order to
create a strong foundation for your research design.
Do not ignore literature that is seemingly outside of your specific research focus. There are
broad themes of which all biological anthropologists must be aware. These include the evolu-
tionary underpinning of our discipline and the biocultural framework that we apply to the
questions and hypotheses we pose. Avoid a tunnel-vision approach, whereby you focus
specifically on your own question and ignore developments in theory or method in the other
scientific disciplines and in anthropology overall. Theory drives the discipline forward and
incorporation of that theory is necessary for work to stay current and relevant, and for scien-
tific advancement.
While few chapters in this volume dove deeply into statistics, it should be apparent that
statistical analyses are essential for elucidating patterns, providing estimable error rates,
and validating results. Therefore, as authors in the volume have emphasized, fluency
with statistical approaches to anthropological questions is necessary. Statistics is not only
vital for your own analyses, but also fundamental for critically reviewing the literature.
Students of anthropology may be intimidated to enroll in a college-level statistics course,
but should nevertheless start now and work their way up to multivariate analyses courses.
Developing a strong foundation in statistical theory and practice will make you a better
skeletal biologist.
As discussed continually throughout this volume, biological anthropology today takes
a population perspective approach to human variation. As skeletal biologists, we investigate
the skeleton to answer questions regarding human experience, life history, and population
history for both past and present populations. Our unique holistic and biocultural viewpoint
has enabled us to move past typology and embrace the population perspective as capable of
informing us of the where, when, why, and how for human variation. Ensure that your
questions are constructed in such a way that the interaction of culture and the environment
