ABSTRACT
One of the principal aims of this volume (see Chapter 1) was to explore the diversity of ways in which humans have adapted both biologically and socio-culturally, particularly in the face of some of the most significant demographic events in the history of the world: the Southeast Asian Neolithic revolution and the Lapita colonisation of the Pacific. In addressing these aims, the book has been structured around geographically, environmentally and climatically meaningful meta-regions, as well as a series of thematic approaches. However, the chapters in this volume can be approached, or viewed, in other ways. Here we wish to highlight several themes that cross regions, time periods and cultures within the ancient Asia-Pacific sphere of influence. In particular, we will conclude the volume by looking at (1) epistemological and ethical concerns, or ‘doing bioarchaeology’; (2) cultural explorations through the lens of funerary behaviours; (3) human mobility; (4) subsistence and diet; and (5) patterns of ancient health and disease.
