Applying the Bioarchaeology of Care model to a severely diseased infant from the Middle Holocene, north‐eastern Brazil: A step further into research on past health‐related caregiving

Abstract

AbstractA potential context of care is suggested in a case study of an anomalous burial from a severely diseased infant of 9 months (±3 months) of age at death, which displayed significant signs of infectious and/or metabolic illnesses on the skeleton. The body also received special mortuary treatment, including associated body reduction processes and display of corporeal relics. The case study corresponds to Individual 9 from Burial 2 at Toca do Enoque, an archaeological site from north‐eastern Brazil used as a funerary site by a pre‐ceramic hunter‐gatherer group during the Middle Holocene (6,220 ± 50 to 6,610 ± 40 years BP). Despite its inherent difficulty, the model of “Bioarchaeology of Care” was applied to this case study providing new research into past health‐related caregiving, addressing the differences between normative parental care and non‐normative healthcare given to altricial children in the past.