The 2023 Conference

January 23-25, 2023 at the Musée de l’Homme, Paris

Theme 1: Invasive, Micro-invasive and Non-invasive Analyses of Anthropobiological Remains. How and Why?

Invited Speaker: Alessia Nava (Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakow, Poland)

The technical and scientific advances of the past 40 years have profoundly transformed the disciplinary fields of biological anthropology. The development of biological analyses sensu lato, and of virtual anthropology, have led anthropologists to modify both their theoretical approaches to the subjects they study, and their “vision” of the anthropobiological remains that constitute their primary material for interpreting past societies and environments.

These methodological developments go hand in hand with the implementation of new practices, while influencing heritage preservation, its valorization, and its availability for study by current researchers as well as future generations. These practices are also dependent on conservation policies at the national level and differ from one country to another, sometimes leading researchers to differentiated treatment of material that can make scientific results difficult to reproduce and interpret. Dialogue between researchers and curators leads to confronting the value of a scientific question with the potential degradation that this type of methodology may cause. Nevertheless, technical developments make it possible to acquire information that was previously inaccessible, and in the era of Open Science, the ease of sharing this type of data can constitute a considerable advance.

This session opens a space for reflection on these methods, their use at different degrees of impact on anthropobiological remains from field to laboratory, on their sometimes considerable scientific contributions compared to traditional methods, and on their museographic and heritage value.

Scientific Committee: Benoit Bertrand, Gwenaëlle Goude, Anne Le Maître, Aurélien Mounier

Theme 2: Current Perspectives on Women in Past Societies: Social Constructions, Bio-cultural Perspectives and Archaeo-anthropological Interpretations

Invited Speaker: John E. Robb (University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom)

Over the past half-century, the Anthropology of past populations has benefited from the contributions of feminist movements and gender studies, particularly through the investment in research by women who have helped restore the Feminine to a place in the History of human groups. Recently, the emergence of archaeological and bio-cultural studies on the place of women in ancient societies has opened new perspectives on the structuring social role of relations between the sexes but has also confronted new theoretical preconceptions and various methodological limitations. In light of this work, the development of contextual archaeo-anthropological approaches, behavioral ecology, the contribution of biomolecular sciences or digital imaging, as well as the use of ethnographic comparisons, make it possible to examine how human groups may have considered genders. The study of dietary behaviors, residential mobility, kinship ties, physical activities, health conditions, or funerary practices and symbolic representations offer tools for addressing male/female relations as well as the expression of femininities/masculinities through various aspects of societal functioning. These varied dimensions can, for example, include access to food resources, the distribution of daily tasks, the experience of the feminine from childhood to old age, parenting practices, reproductive strategies and kinship structures, or funerary or symbolic treatments. Analyzing these questions dynamically also makes it possible to examine the interaction between sexual dimorphism and social structuring, the biological costs and selective pressures arising from gendered cultural practices. The objective of this session is to provide a critical assessment of past or ongoing research, in the plurality of Anthropology disciplines, contexts and perspectives concerning women or femininities, their antagonists or complementarities in ancient societies.

Scientific Committee: Camille de Becdelièvre, Cécile Buquet, Olivia Munoz, Aline Thomas, Sébastien Villotte

Theme 3: Research Updates

This theme will bring together recent advances in the discipline, whether new discoveries or methodological developments.

Scientific Committee: Fanny Bocquentin, Bérénice Chamel, Christine Couture and Morgane Gibert

Program: Abstracts: