ABSTRACT
Among the many areas of interest shared by archaeology and anthropology is the study of human bones. Although some of the cruder approaches to describing human diversity from the form and capacity of crania have, rightly, fallen out of favor, this shared interest in bones and, in particular, how the living think about, feel about, and interact with bones of the dead persists and continues to animate both anthropological and archaeological scholarship. This chapter is an “anthropological” contribution to what is, as the Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) conference and this volume attests an emergent dialogue between archaeology and anthropology, a dialogue in which anthropologists may do well by being more attentive to what our colleagues in archaeology are doing and writing. It is part of a larger project that seeks to draw together an interdisciplinary network of scholars, artists, and activists, interested in some way or another in human bones.
