Unfortunately, I didn’t read the original full email as I can’t attend the SAA’s this year, so I’m just going on this exchange and the subject line, but I don’t understand how it can’t be archaeological. My understanding of “global health” is that it deals primarily though not exclusively with the spread of disease on a global scale. Though some might argue that the first global health crisis dates to the 14th century Black Plague spread through Europe, I, with my New World bias, would go with the spread of disease globally as Europeans circumnavigated the globe. Seems to me archaeology has lots to say about this in many ways. No “big data” needed. Almost all of us working in historical archaeology, in the New World anyway, have to confront the question of how, exactly, that spread of disease has impacted the population we are studying.
More specifically, though, one of my roommates from grad school got her PhD in medical anthropology and has worked in Global Health for both the WHO and the NIH. Her expertise is in decision-making and health, especially when indigenous and “Western” medicines come into conflict. I could certainly bring this into a discussion about my own work. In the context of the 19th century workers quarters at a central Mexican Hacienda, I found, in the same domestic area, 1. patent medicine bottles (I suppose what would be understood as modern Western medicine…), 2. faunal remains belonging to a species of animal that a local cultural anthropologist/shaman told me was used by the local indigenous group in healing ceremonies, and 3. a charm (a figa or higa) who’s style and meaning has its origins in Medieval Spain and Italy—most interestingly of this last, an identical charm (like could have come from the very same mold identical) was found in an undated context in St. Augustine, FL.
If I were attending the SAA’s this spring and if I weren’t embroiled in four other projects with promises to myself not to start on something new just yet, I could easily see putting together a paper that was both archaeological and related to global health as I understand it.
But thanks to the session organizers for prompting this discussion and an opportunity to think about it! You might have just given me an idea for a new and cool paper!
Best,
Elizabeth
PS Incidentally, if anybody is interested in the figa/higa thing—Deagan’s find is pictured in Fig. 5.16 in her second volume on artifacts of the Spanish Colonies… (page 103) and mine is pictured in Fig.8.7 on page 192 of my book.
Elizabeth Terese Newman, PhD
Associate Professor of History, Stony Brook University
www.elizabethnewman.org
Check out my book, Biography of a Hacienda <http://www.elizabethnewman.org/book.html>(University of Arizona Press 2014).
> On Sep 3, 2016, at 11:53 AM, geoff carver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Could be; I just don't see how we could use archaeology to investigate
> "global health."
> What exactly would we be excavating? For what period could we get a "global"
> dataset large enough that we could say anything meaningful?
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Then it would be worth attending the session in April to see what these
> researchers are doing!
>
> --Barb
> [log in to unmask]
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> I really fail to see how this could be archaeological...
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> We invite your comments and feedback, and look forward to having the
> opportunity to collaborate with you all in Vancouver this coming spring!
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