Skeletal correlates of human behavior in the americas

A review of recent anthropological research deriving behavioral inferences from analyses of human skeletal remains focuses on interpretations of diet, social organization, population structure and migration, activities, activity levels and occupation, and warfare, violence, and death in the prehistoric and historic Americas. Critical evaluation of these inferences shows that some of them suffer from inadequate supporting evidence, lack of consideration of alternative hypotheses, or absence of clear methods for deriving and testing these inferences. Overall, however, the potential for behavioral reconstruction from skeletal analysis is great. Behaviors leaving more direct effects on bone such as dietary preference, warfare, and some activities produced the most secure inferences when derived from populational samples and supported by supplementary evidence. Human skeletal remains represent important resources for the reconstruction of behavior.     

From Slavery to Abolition in Peru: Four Recent Contributions

Agentes de su propia libertad. Los esclavos de Lima y la desintegración de la esclavitud, 1821–1854. By CARLOS AGUIRRE. Lima: Fondo Editorial Universidad Católica, 1993. Pp. 333.

Slavery and Abolition in Early Republican Peru. By PETER BLANCHARD. Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 1992. Pp. xx, 247.

Paying the Price of Freedom: Family and Labor among Lima's Slaves, 1800–1854. By CHRISTINE HÜNEFELDT. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994. Pp. xi, 269.

Safari africano y compra‐venta de esclavos para el Perú (1412–1818). By FERNANDO ROMERO. Lima: IEP‐UNSCH, 1994. Pp. 275.     

“He hath not dealt so with any. nation”: Three Recent Books on Religion,Economy, and Society in Colonial Mexico

The Wages of Conquest: The Mexican Aristocracy in the Context of Western Aristocracies. By HUGO G. NUTINI. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994. Pp. xviii, 444.

Our Lady of Guadalupe: The Origins and Sources of a Mexican National Symbol, 1531–1797. By STAFFORD POOLE. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995. Pp. 325.

The History of Capitalism in Mexico: Its Origins, 1521–1763. By ENRIQUE SEMO. Trans. LIDIA LOZANO. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1993. Pp. 231.