About this Research Topic

Background

This Research Topic is the outcome of a three-day workshop bringing together an international group of established scholars and early career researchers (ECRs) to discuss the pervading challenges, future research methods, prospects and potential for studying the life course through bioarchaeology.

Many interconnected biological and social factors can impact how a person experiences life, such as their gender, ethnicity, religion, family relations and - significantly, intersecting all of these - their age. This workshop will explore four key life stages: infancy, early childhood, adolescence and old age. Participants will identify, explore and interrogate both theoretical and methodological barriers preventing advances in our understanding of these critical life stages in the past (e.g. ethics, terminology), investigating commonalities and synergies, as well as divergences, between these age groups.

The workshop will also consider whether current bioarchaeological frameworks for understanding and interpreting these ages/life stages in the past are fit for purpose, exploring and proposing ways in which to address challenges identified, and thus enhance life course research. The first two days of the workshop will involve structured discussions in groups around key themes relating to age and the life course, before all participants unite to exchange knowledge and ideas. The final day will consist of a writing workshop where scholars will collaborate to draft a series of papers (one on theory or application, one on methods) for each of the life stages discussed.

Consequently, the central purpose of this workshop is to assimilate varying and emerging perspectives to consider, challenge, and propose new ideas to advance research into the life course and ensure such bioarchaeological data remains relevant to the ‘global goals’ outlined by the UN (2015). Because of the intersectional way in which age and ageing impact our lives and experiences, we have the opportunity to contribute to current discourses on good health and well-being, reduced inequalities, and gender equality.

The participants of the workshop will produce this Research Topic for the Human Bioarchaeology and Paleopathology section in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, on the theme of ‘Osteology of the Life Course’.

This Research Topic will be the first to synthesise and take a thematic and age-specific approach to provide a holistic narrative and research agenda for investigations into the bioarchaeology of the life course.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: osteology, perinatal, adolescence, archaeology

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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