Towards a bioarchaeology of care of children

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Oxenham, Marc;Willis, Anna
Abstract

One of the key case studies used in the development, both theoretical and practical, of the bioarchaeology of care model (see Tilley & Oxenham, 2011) was the adult Man Bac Burial 9 (MB9), who as it turns out was severely physically (at least) inca-pacitated from childhood (Oxenham et al., 2009). In many ways the current staged approach to exploring the issue of care in the past (see Chap. 2 , this volume and references therein) can assess any individual from any time period and/or cultural background regardless of their final age-at-death. Indeed, the care model should, at face value, be able to be trained on children , adults and the very old to great effect. In the case of MB9 care commenced while he was a young child , although an exact age of onset of his condition cannot be determined with any specifi city, and contin-ued throughout childhood, into his teens and onto his mid to late twenties – at which time he died. The chief aim of this chapter is not so much to develop a complete, robust, theoretical and operational approach to the bioarchaeology of care of children , as we do not think this is necessary (see below), but rather to raise a series of ques-tions regarding the study of children in potential care contexts in the past and to provide a case study that explores some of the implications of looking at children in contexts of potential care. This case study focuses on the children that lived, potentially received health care , and died at Man Bac some 4000 years ago in northern Vietnam .

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New Developments in the Bioarchaeology of Care: further case studies and expanded theory

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978-3-319-39901-0

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17

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Springer

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Cham, Switzerland

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