Setting the Scene for a Bioarchaeology of Care

Abstract

Chapter 2 presents the background against which the bioarchaeology of care approach was developed. It reviews past archaeological studies in which the likelihood of health-related care provision was observed – or might justifiably have been observed, but was not; considers research on evidence for specific medical treatments, such as trepanation, and how this might align with a broader research focus on caregiving; engages, sometimes vigorously, with general and specific criticisms that have been historically levelled against the archaeological inference of care; looks at the way in which archaeology has approached questions of disability and care at the level of theory; and discusses where archaeology currently stands on caregiving as an area of research. This chapter explores possible reasons behind the general lack of interest (and sometimes hostility) shown by archaeologists towards the topic of care in the past, and challenges some of the arguments opposing archaeological engagement.