This volume uses osteobiography and individual-level analyses of burials
retrieved from the La Plata River Valley (New Mexico) to illustrate the
variety of roles that Ancestral Pueblo women played in the past (circa
AD 1100-1300). The experiences of women as a result of their gender,
age, and status over the life course are reconstructed, with
consideration given to the gendered forms of violence they were subject
to and the consequences of social violence on health. The authors
demonstrate the utility of a modern bioarchaeological approach that
combines social theories about gender and violence with burial data in
conjunction with information from many other sources--including
archaeological reconstruction of homes and communities, ethnohistoric
resources available on Pueblo society, and Pueblo women's contemporary
voices. This analysis presents a more accurate, nuanced, and complex
picture of life in the past for mothers, sisters, wives, and, captives.