ABSTRACT
In the increasingly interdisciplinary and interdependent academic world, it has become clear that no discipline is an island — that, in fact, formerly rigid boundaries are displaying a considerable amount of elasticity that encourages interaction. An example of the new approaches may be found in the relationship of the classic field of archaeology, dating to the 19th century, and the newer study of bioarchaeology, originating in the last third of the 20th century. This chapter examines an activity that contributes to the broader world of archaeology via the channel of bioarchaeology: dental anthropology, the study of teeth in humans. This historical review concentrates on the development of dental anthropology with respect to American archaeology and osteology (after British beginnings), and the history would be somewhat different if we had included the extensive literature from other parts of the world.
