This volume explores the roles and responsibilities of bioarchaeologists as social scientists in our research design and dissemination, especially in relation to communication, outreach, and public/social media. The topics explored by bioarchaeologists as anthropologists, who use a contextual approach to study human remains from archaeological sites, often hold the potential to attract the attention of a broad general audience and to shine light on curious, dangerous, difficult, or otherwise interesting and important aspects of human history. Research into the identity of the skeletal remains likely pertaining to Richard III (last Plantagenet king of England), possible Medieval vampire burials from Poland, prehispanic Inca child sacrifices from South America, and ancient plagues (compared to modern ones), have moved quickly from peer-reviewed journals to the pages of popular media. Many people are interested in the lives of historical figures and spectacular acts of violence in the past; however, bioarchaeologists tend to reconstruct and report their research to a narrow scientific audience without engaging beyond to the public. In the introductory chapter, Jane Buikstra and Katelyn Bolhofner point out that “bioarchaeologists collect and examine data directly relevant to addressing the most crucial issues faced by the global community” (p. 3), yet they remain invisible while other media venues exoticize and dramatize, often beyond the scope of the data. Scientists are sometimes not fully aware of how their publications could be better translated for public engagement.
Although there is a long history of science and technology reporting, Bioarchaeologists Speak Out is the first edited volume to bring together key scholars to address a series of relevant topics and to identify specific strategies to bring awareness to the field. The book is a helpful guide that prepares us and our students to develop careful and critical approaches to research, to increase the relevance of research to modern audiences, and to avoid sensationalizing novel archaeological finds.
The introductory chapter by Buikstra and Bolhofner leads with a clear narrative considering the special public position of bioarchaeology and how we need to be careful with what we chose to research and how we present it. In essence, we need to capitalize better on this “Indiana Jones effect.” The following chapters explore the topics that connect us to the public, including a fascination with bodies and death (Chapter 2), forensic anthropology (Chapter 11), mummies (Chapter 12), and osteobiographies (skeletal life histories; Chapter 13). Additional chapters cover key topics that include migration (Chapters 4 and 8), epidemic diseases (Chapter 5), climate change (Chapter 6), health and diet (Chapter 7), and social identity and conflict (Chapters 3, 9, and 10). Specifically, each connects with a modern humanitarian concern, “ripped from the headlines,” and explores how bioarchaeological research can play a role in enriching the discussion, especially if we engage in the production of accessible publications.
It is notable that one of the critiques of bioarchaeologists as science communicators is the lingo, verbiage, and lack of readability that we use in peer-reviewed articles. Yet, when several of the chapters in Bioarchaeologists Speak Out are evaluated by this metric, they are guilty of this kind of jargon and technical language, and some chapters are not as clearly written as they argue should be the case for scholarly articles in our field. However, there are several key chapters with valuable insights that can help shape the future of bioarchaeology, especially with directed approaches to studying the variability of the colonial experience (Milner, Chapter 4) and Buikstra's (Chapter 2) conversation about the public display and scientific use of human remains, a topic currently being addressed in policies by many professional organizations. Specifically, Kristina Killgrove's contribution (Chapter 14) explores the “landscape of bioarchaeology journalism” in light of our modern digital “click-bait” communication world. She identifies a series of steps for writing anthropology for the public, which is valuable for both new and seasoned scholars.
Two other important themes in the volume include the impact of bioarchaeological research on various stakeholders and descendant communities, as well as the need to confront and explain pseudoscience and avoid stereotypes. The numerous topical bioarchaeology volumes that have increasingly been published in recent years enrich interpretations with social theory, providing many case studies and key datasets, but they rarely discuss the more practical impact of how we do our research, and how those results could impact or be interpreted by other living groups. In our current reflection on how to be accountable for our work, given its racist legacy, and decolonize our syllabi, this volume provides the beginning of some great conversations about how to do so.
As bioarchaeology has been growing exponentially as a subdiscipline in the last decades, we have been slow to engage with current issues and literally lost in our own museums. I believe all scientists can benefit from the following advice from Buikstra and Bolhofner found in Chapter 1: “By holding ourselves accountable to address the simple question so what? in our research and publications, we may open more clear lines of communication with popular media and the public, as well as with funding agencies, and more easily and effectively convey the ‘big picture,’ broader themes with which we should strive to grapple” (p. 16). We need to speak out and become advocates for our research and also be part of enriching the conversations of many of these important global issues.
