Books by Ryan P Harrod
Springer, 2017
Taking a bioarchaeological approach, this book examines the Ancestral Pueblo culture living in th... more Taking a bioarchaeological approach, this book examines the Ancestral Pueblo culture living in the Four Corners region of the United States during the late Pueblo I through the end of the Pueblo III period (AD 850-1300). During this time, a vast system of pueblo villages spread throughout the region creating what has been called the Chaco Phenomenon, named after the large great houses in Chaco Canyon that are thought to have been centers of control. Through a bioarchaeological analysis of the human skeletal remains, this volume provides evidence that key individuals within the hierarchical social structure used a variety of methods of social control, including structural violence, to maintain their power over the interconnected communities.
Publications by Ryan P Harrod
International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, 2019
The examination of comingled ossuary collections creates unique analytical issues as bones are ra... more The examination of comingled ossuary collections creates unique analytical issues as bones are rarely articulated, requiring that the skeletal elements be examined on an individual basis. A result is that the estimation of crucial demographic information like age at death and sex becomes problematic and attempts to ascertain this information involve a high degree of error. Bearing these issues in mind, however, the focus of this project is to identify and interpret signs of osteoarthritis, osteochondritis dissecans, and osteochondral fracturing, as well as to score for the presence and degree of musculoskeletal markers, on patellae from the ossuary at Tell Abraq. A secondary goal of this project was to utilize the patellae to elicit both estimations of minimum number of individuals and the ratio of sex within the population.
Preliminary results indicate a high prevalence of osteoarthritis, osteochondritis dissecans, and enchondral fracture that was not correlated to estimated sex. This lack of correlation may be due to several factors, including difficulty in sex estimation based on metric analysis of a single element, a skewed sex distribution, or an actual lack of correlation. Regardless of the difficulties of estimating sex in a comingled collection, it seems clear that both men and women were exposed to conditions that fostered the development of osteoarthritis and that trauma to the knee was a common occurrence for those ultimately interred in the ossuary.
Journal of Northwest Anthropology, 2016
The research described in this article evaluates the presence and significance of violence among ... more The research described in this article evaluates the presence and significance of violence among a sample of human skeletal remains recovered from sites in the interior northwestern portion of the continental United States. Violent encounters were measured by analyzing signatures of traumatic injury indicative of violence. All of the burials were recovered from cultures found in the southern portion of the Plateau culture area. Historically, the populations inhabiting the Plateau have been thought of as relatively peaceful, with violence only developing because of contact with Euro-American explorers, soldiers, and settlers. The reality, however, is that more and more evidence is being presented to suggest that violence was always a part of life in this part of the world. This study adds to a growing body of research that supports the notion that violence was an important part of the local inhabitants' ideology and an adaptive strategy for securing resources and maintaining group solidarity. The results indicate a great deal of variation in violence among the groups over time but in general, there were periods of conflict in this region before and after Euro-American contact.
Bioarchaeological Analyses and Bodies, 2018
By reflecting on how our own perspectives influence the data we collect and the questions we ask,... more By reflecting on how our own perspectives influence the data we collect and the questions we ask, bioarchaeologists are positioned to move the approach to understanding humans into new areas. In this chapter, we examine social hierarchy at the height of the society identified as the “Chaco Phenomenon” in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest (AD 900–1300). Traditionally, research on the development and maintenance of social complexity during this period has focused on the role of males, especially higher status or elite individuals. Females have often been relegated to the role of mother, laborer, or captive. However, gender roles in the past, like today, were fluid and relational. The health and status of the females from several archaeological sites (i.e., Black Mesa, La Plata, Kin Bineola, and Room 33 at Pueblo Bonito) are reanalyzed to highlight the complex and nuanced roles that both males and females likely played in these communities. This study interrogates the way that questions about the “Chaco Phenomenon” have been framed and what this implies about the kinds of data that have been collected and interpreted.
Bioarchaeological and Forensic Perspectives on Violence: How Violent Death is interpreted from Skeletal Remains, edited by Debra Martin and Cheryl Anderson, Apr 2014
Traumatic injuries found on human skeletal remains, whether recently deceased or from long ago, a... more Traumatic injuries found on human skeletal remains, whether recently deceased or from long ago, are a direct source of evidence for anthropologists to generate information concerning the nature of violent human interactions among victims, witnesses, and aggressors. In this chapter, we collectively engage how ballistic trauma can be interpreted to simultaneously shed light on the cause of death impacting a victim or victims while also allowing for a reconstruction of context and sequence of events needed to more fully understand history and the factors influencing violent human behavior.
Through an examination of the deaths of Nevada's first reported murder and suicide victims, Edwin and William Kiel, we illustrate how forensic and bioarchaeological approaches can be married to rule out murder-suicide as a formative process resulting in the trauma patterns we observed on the remains. Further, when contextualized and compared historically, these data enable us to formulate a possible osteological signature of ambush that may be useful in exploring ideologically- motivated violence involving firearms throughout Western history.
Thematic Issue: Chinese Railroad Workers in North America, ed. Barbara Voss, 2015
Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chinese migrants came to the United States to construct the t... more Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chinese migrants came to the United States to construct the transcontinental railroad. Archaeological analyses are especially important for understanding the legacies of early Chinese immigrants in historic America because for whom written records are lacking. Studies of the physical remains of Chinese laborers are among new areas of such archaeological research. The reanalysis of the remains of thirteen Chinese men recovered from a cemetery in Carlin, Nevada reveals that most individuals exhibited widespread musculoskeletal development suggesting frequent, repeated bodily strain. Additionally, all thirteen individuals exhibited skeletal trauma or pathologies that could have been acquired while constructing the Central Pacific Railroad. Skeletal analysis of the burials recovered from Carlin reveal the extent to which Chinese railroad workers endured exploitative labor oppression and racism while simultaneously embodying resilience. Findings from the Carlin reanalysis are presented here in the hopes of inspiring further bioarchaeological investigations of Chinese immigrants, particularly those recovering the experiences of railway workers.
Thematic Section: Blurring the Boundaries between the Living and the Dead: The Bioarchaeology of Postmortem Agency, edited by JJ Crandall & DL Martin, Nov 3, 2014
In October 1900, Edwin and William Kiel were killed outside of Nevada’s oldest standing structure... more In October 1900, Edwin and William Kiel were killed outside of Nevada’s oldest standing structure in North Las Vegas. Since their death, the Kiel brothers have been analyzed by bioarchaeologists and forensic experts. Their ranch, now a historic site, remains the property of the city of North Las Vegas and is a contested space which has seen little development. In this paper, we discuss the postmortem social lives of the brothers within the context of debates about the ranch and the brother’s bones which remain separated. How the brothers have taken on various symbolic forms after death and how their bones have not yet been returned to the site are examined. We document the ways the brothers are used rhetorically as tools by the living as they debate the fate of the ranch. We argue that the brother’s bones, even in their absence, are effective tools in ongoing political debates. This paper provides an example of how absent bodies, or bodies out of place, can serve as secondary agents. Additionally, the study provides bioarchaeologists with a narrative of how the dead are more than tools but may unexpectedly alter human behavior.
KIVA Journal of Southwestern Anthropology and History Subjugated in the San Juan Basin: Identifying Captives in the American Southwest, 2018
For over two decades archaeologists and bioarchaeologists have identified evidence to suggest tha... more For over two decades archaeologists and bioarchaeologists have identified evidence to suggest that there was a system of captivity and subjugation in the American Southwest before the arrival of Europeans. However, to understand the practice of taking captives in the region, we must attempt to determine why people are subjugated and who is at risk of being enslaved. The focus of this paper is to understand the signs of captivity in the archaeological and bioarchaeological record, and parse out possible motivations for why slavery or raiding for captives was practiced among the Ancestral Pueblo. Using evidence from oral traditions and historical texts of the Spanish colonizers, archaeological evidence of environmental stress, changes in paleodemography at sites, and data obtained from human skeletal remains, this paper explores the likelihood that the practice of captive-taking was present among the Ancestral Pueblo.
Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 2015
The bioarchaeological record has an abundance of scientific evidence based on skeletal indicators... more The bioarchaeological record has an abundance of scientific evidence based on skeletal indicators of trauma to argue for a long history of internal and external group conflict. However, the findings also suggest variability, nuance, and unevenness in the type, use, and meaning of violence across time and space and therefore defy generalizations or easy quan-tification. Documenting violence-related behaviors provides an overview of the often unique and sometimes patterned cultural use of violence. Violence (lethal and nonlethal) is often associated with social spheres of influence and power connected to daily life such as subsistence intensification, specialization, competition for scarce resources, climate, population density, territorial protection and presence of immigrants, to name just a few. By using fine-grained biocultural analyses that interrogate trauma data in particular places at particular times in reconstructed archaeological contexts , a more comprehensive view into the histories and experiences of violence emerges. Moreover, identifying culturally specific patterns related to age, sex, and social status provide an increasingly complex picture of early small-scale groups. Some forms of ritual violence also have restorative and regenerative aspects that strengthen community identity. Bioarchaeological data can shed light on the ways that violence becomes part of a given cultural landscape. Viewed in a biocultural context, evidence of osteological trauma provides rich insights into social relationships and the many ways that violence is embedded within those relationships.
The Bioarchaeology of Violence, 2012
Bioarchaeology of Frontiers and Borderlands, 2019
The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad, 2019
Broken Bones, Broken Bodies: Bioarchaeological and forensic approaches for accumulative trauma and violence, 2017
The Archaeological Record, 2012
The Encyclopedia of Archaeological Sciences, 2018
Ancient human remains can be analyzed with an eye toward clarifying the limits of human adaptatio... more Ancient human remains can be analyzed with an eye toward clarifying the limits of human adaptation to many of life's hardships. Data collected from the remnants of skeletonized bodies provides information on the costs of living under trying times and the pain, suffering, and disability experienced. Focusing on the survivors of stressful conditions such as colonization, endemic warfare, climate change, or slavery provides a way to examine the experience of survival as well as the human costs of adapting to the environmental or political-economic processes creating the condition.
Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chi- nese immigrants came to the United States to construct t... more Between 1865 and 1869, thousands of Chi- nese immigrants came to the United States to construct the transcontinental railroad. Their impact went beyond labor and helped to develop the social and economic landscape of the country through their ingenuity. Archaeo- logical analyses are especially important for understanding the Chinese in historical America because of the lack of written records. Bio- archaeology can contribute by providing a glimpse into the lives of these resourceful and diverse laborers who toiled to contribute to the development of the railways in the 19th century. The reanalysis of the remains of 13 Chinese men recovered from a cemetery in Carlin, Nevada, reveals that most individuals exhibited widespread musculoskeletal devel- opment suggesting frequent, repeated bodily strain. Additionally, all 13 individuals exhibited skeletal trauma or pathologies. The men recov- ered from Carlin reveal the extent to which Chinese railroad workers endured exploitative oppression and racism, while simultaneously embodying resilience.
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Books by Ryan P Harrod
Publications by Ryan P Harrod
Preliminary results indicate a high prevalence of osteoarthritis, osteochondritis dissecans, and enchondral fracture that was not correlated to estimated sex. This lack of correlation may be due to several factors, including difficulty in sex estimation based on metric analysis of a single element, a skewed sex distribution, or an actual lack of correlation. Regardless of the difficulties of estimating sex in a comingled collection, it seems clear that both men and women were exposed to conditions that fostered the development of osteoarthritis and that trauma to the knee was a common occurrence for those ultimately interred in the ossuary.
Through an examination of the deaths of Nevada's first reported murder and suicide victims, Edwin and William Kiel, we illustrate how forensic and bioarchaeological approaches can be married to rule out murder-suicide as a formative process resulting in the trauma patterns we observed on the remains. Further, when contextualized and compared historically, these data enable us to formulate a possible osteological signature of ambush that may be useful in exploring ideologically- motivated violence involving firearms throughout Western history.
Preliminary results indicate a high prevalence of osteoarthritis, osteochondritis dissecans, and enchondral fracture that was not correlated to estimated sex. This lack of correlation may be due to several factors, including difficulty in sex estimation based on metric analysis of a single element, a skewed sex distribution, or an actual lack of correlation. Regardless of the difficulties of estimating sex in a comingled collection, it seems clear that both men and women were exposed to conditions that fostered the development of osteoarthritis and that trauma to the knee was a common occurrence for those ultimately interred in the ossuary.
Through an examination of the deaths of Nevada's first reported murder and suicide victims, Edwin and William Kiel, we illustrate how forensic and bioarchaeological approaches can be married to rule out murder-suicide as a formative process resulting in the trauma patterns we observed on the remains. Further, when contextualized and compared historically, these data enable us to formulate a possible osteological signature of ambush that may be useful in exploring ideologically- motivated violence involving firearms throughout Western history.
seguros que esta revisión contribuirá a la comprensión de los métodos, enfoques e interpretaciones más recientes de las lesiones traumáticas.