Methods for Better Understanding: Envisioning Human Frailty from the Past to the Future
A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 June 2025 | Viewed by 201
Special Issue Editors
Interests: past social and cultural health; wealth inequalities; ethical issues related to access/use of human remains in science, technology and humanities and their impact on society
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: ethical aspects of human remains; paleopathology (in particular from the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands); methods in biological profile and trauma in forensic anthropology
Interests: forensic genetics; DNA, forensic biology; population genetics; low template DNA; STRs; X-chromosome; kinship analysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: social history (health, illness, assistance, marginality, violence, prisons); the history of tourism, including issues related to leisure and sociability, between the 18th and 20th centuries
Special Issue Information
Dear Collegues,
Our understanding of past human frailty no longer complies with the simplistic assumption that what is found, either of human remains or material culture, is sufficient to portray the complexity of biology, culture and society, and added environmental interactions. For example, traditional macroscopic observation of bony changes is insufficient to answer questions related to diet and disease. Contextualized archaeological sites, which are seen as giving us the privilege to infer information about war and epidemics, do not fully express the conflicting nature of their historical settings nor the event(s) that may have taken place afterwards. Additionally, historical documents are known to have internet biases.
Therefore, our interpretations are limited by our theoretical assumptions and methodological approaches, and maybe “frailty” is a concept that needs to be deconstructed. The contribution of anthropology, archaeology, and history to understanding past human “frailty” while informing the present and modulating the future is undeniable—one must find ways to produce solid scientific knowledge. This Special Issue highlights the benefits of an interdisciplinary approach to human frailty and the need to deconstruct its social, cultural and biological meanings.
Contributions should fit one of the journal’s three categories of papers (article, conceptual paper or review) and address the topic of the Special Issue.
Dr. Francisca Alves Cardoso
Dr. Nicholas Márquez-Grant
Dr. Cláudia Gomes
Dr. Alexandra Patrícia Lopes Esteves
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- human frailty
- human remains
- material culture
- biology
- culture
- society
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