Claire M Hodson | Durham University (original) (raw)
Outreach by Claire M Hodson
Our workshops focus on the scientific fields of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, with a s... more Our workshops focus on the scientific fields of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, with a specific emphasis on human osteology. In a workshop of 4 hours, which we run up to 10 times that week, we make the students familiar with the basics of our field. This includes skeletal anatomy, sex and age determination and pathological analysis. The first part of the workshop consists of short lectures on the different topics. The second part consists of a hands-on practical session where students can practice with identifying certain diseases from bone casts, estimate the age on the basis of skeletal development, and students are taught how to make a thin section of bone to aid in age determination.
Conference Panel by Claire M Hodson
by Sian Halcrow, Rebecca Gowland, Eileen Murphy, Helen L Ball, Mary Lewis, Tom J Booth, Nadja Reissland, Sophie Newman, Ellen Kendall, Claire M Hodson, and Julia Beaumont
This workshop will bring together world-leading, international scholars with the aim of developin... more This workshop will bring together world-leading, international scholars with the aim of developing new theoretical perspectives for studying the mother-infant nexus in anthropology. The themes covered will explore biocultural understandings and embodied practices relating to maternal, fetal and infant bodies and the significance for early life development and overall population well-being. This is particularly topical because there is a burgeoning awareness within anthropology regarding the centrality of mother-infant interactions for understanding the evolution of our species, infant and maternal health and care strategies, epigenetic change, and biological and social development. Over the past few decades the anthropology and archaeology of childhood has developed apace, however, infancy, the pregnant body and motherhood continue to be marginalised. The aim of this workshop is to develop new theoretical directions within anthropology and set future research agendas regarding the unique mother-infant relationship. We will achieve this aim
through two inter-related objectives: 1) Our targeted invitation of participants who are leaders in different sub-disciplines of
anthropology and beyond, whose research is breaking new methodological and theoretical ground in investigating mother-infant
relationships and; 2) To assess a series of inter-related research topics/themes through multiple anthropological approaches in order to develop a holistic biocultural understanding of the mother-infant relationship and broader implications for population well-being. Outputs will include an edited volume, 'The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology:
Small Beginnings, Significant Outcomes' with Springer, a collaborative Major Article for Current Anthropology, and dissemination via major forms of social media.
Papers by Claire M Hodson
Childhood in the Past, 2021
ABSTRACT Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young li... more ABSTRACT Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet within these studies, the youngest members of past populations persist in lingering on the margins of discussion. Fetal, perinatal and infant lives are tangential; unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings, with their position and role in society typically a product of parental or wider social vectors, these individuals, their experiences, and their roles are complex to decipher. Yet as keepers of both biological and social data – regarding themselves, their mothers and wider community dynamics – these individuals are central in developing comprehensive narratives of infanthood in the past. However, a lack of methodologies for investigating these young lives has been a constant limitation. With recent advancements able to further our understanding of these early life courses, it is now pertinent to focus on fetal, perinatal and infant lives further.
The trajectory and success of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and development is regulated and... more The trajectory and success of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and development is regulated and/or altered by a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Both growth and development exhibit a degree of plasticity and thus may fluctuate in response to early life adversity. Non-adult skeletal remains therefore provide a tangible record of growth and health disruption as a consequence of stress in the early life course. This study represents the first extensive and integrated osteological and palaeopathological assessment of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and health disruption. It seeks to determine skeletal responses to adversity and to provide a comprehensive consideration of the potential pathogeneses, etiologies and contextual factors which can affect intrauterine and postnatal health and growth. A total of 423 individuals from 15 different archaeological and historical samples, spanning a ~2000-year time period, have been considered for analysis. Assessment reveals a com...
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2021
Britannia, 2017
The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Rom... more The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Romano-British domestic sites. In recent years, the discovery of many such burials has led to interpretations of infanticide and unceremonious disposal. Although this has been a widely discussed phenomenon, much of the literature has focused on the funerary context, and the biological age and sex estimates of these individuals, with little consideration of the palaeopathological evidence. This article provides a detailed analysis of 17 perinates/infants from the late Iron Age/early Roman site of Piddington, Northants. It discusses the skeletal evidence for poor health and growth, and highlights the potential of these remains to reveal alternative insights into perinatal and infant death. Evidence of growth changes and pathological lesions were identified, suggesting that these individuals experienced chronic episodes of poor health that affected their skeletal development. The study explore...
The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology, 2019
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2021
Objectives This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimat... more Objectives This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates. Materials and methods A total of 43 teeth from 29 nonadult individuals aged from 40 gestational weeks to 19 years old were analyzed. The sample included pairs of fully mineralized and just developing teeth from the same individual. The individuals were from four archaeological sites in England: Piddington (1st–2nd centuries AD), Coach Lane, Victoria Gate, and Fewston (all 18th–19th centuries). A method that identifies sex chromosome‐linked isoforms of the peptide amelogenin from human tooth enamel was applied. The method utilizes a minimally destructive acid etching procedure and subsequent nano liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Results It was possible to determine the sex of 28 of the nonadult individuals sampled (males = 20, females = 8, undetermined = 1). Only one sample failed (CL9), due to insufficient mineralization of the sampled tooth enamel. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD021683. Discussion Sufficient peptide material to determine sex can be recovered even from the crowns of developing perinatal teeth that are not fully mineralized. The minimally destructive and inexpensive (compared to ancient DNA) nature of this procedure has significant implications for bioarchaeological studies of infancy and childhood.
Childhood in the Past, 2021
Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet ... more Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet within these studies, the youngest members of past populations persist in lingering on the margins of discussion. Fetal, perinatal and infant lives are tangential; unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings, with their position and role in society typically a product of parental or wider social vectors, these individuals, their experiences, and their roles are complex to decipher. Yet as keepers of both biological and social data – regarding themselves, their mothers and wider community dynamics – these individuals are central in developing comprehensive narratives of infanthood in the past. However, a lack of methodologies for investigating these young lives has been a constant limitation. With recent advancements able to further our understanding of these early life courses, it is now pertinent to focus on fetal, perinatal and infant lives further.
The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology: Small Beginnings, Significant Outcomes, 2019
Britannia, 2017
The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Rom... more The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Romano-British domestic sites. In recent years, the discovery of many such burials has led to interpretations of infanticide and unceremonious disposal. Although this has been a widely considered phenomenon, much of the literature has focussed on the funerary context, and the biological age and sex estimates of these individuals, with little consideration of the palaeopathological evidence. This paper provides a detailed analysis of 17 perinates/infants from the Late Iron Age/Early Roman site of Piddington, Northamptonshire. It discusses the skeletal evidence for poor health and growth, and highlights the potential of these remains to reveal alternative insights into perinatal and infant death. Evidence of growth changes and pathological lesions were identified, suggesting that these individuals experienced chronic episodes of poor health that affected their skeletal development. The study explores the implications of these findings, within the context of Iron Age and Roman Britain. At Piddington, the death of these infants is not associated with the cultural practice of infanticide, but occurred due to poor health, highlighting the precarious nature of infant survival in the past.
Book Reviews by Claire M Hodson
Antiquity, 2019
The last two decades have seen an exponential rise in scholarly interest and research into childh... more The last two decades have seen an exponential rise in scholarly interest and research into childhood, and children, in the past (e.g. Scheuer & Black 2000; Baxter 2005; Lewis 2007; Finlay 2013; Halcrow et al. 2018). Multiple publications have explored the scholarly origins of the field, detailing its complex and multidisciplinary development (Prout 2005; Halcrow & Tayles 2008; Lillehammer 2015; Mays et al. 2017). Several authors (e.g. Lillehammer 2015; Mays et al. 2017) have also, very successfully, synthesised extant research themes and investigations, and proposed future research directions. Consequently, although this field is in its relative infancy, its voice is louder than ever as the importance of studies of childhood and children in the past is realised.
Conference Presentations by Claire M Hodson
BABAO Conference, Durham University, Durham, 2014
Our workshops focus on the scientific fields of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, with a s... more Our workshops focus on the scientific fields of Biological Anthropology and Archaeology, with a specific emphasis on human osteology. In a workshop of 4 hours, which we run up to 10 times that week, we make the students familiar with the basics of our field. This includes skeletal anatomy, sex and age determination and pathological analysis. The first part of the workshop consists of short lectures on the different topics. The second part consists of a hands-on practical session where students can practice with identifying certain diseases from bone casts, estimate the age on the basis of skeletal development, and students are taught how to make a thin section of bone to aid in age determination.
by Sian Halcrow, Rebecca Gowland, Eileen Murphy, Helen L Ball, Mary Lewis, Tom J Booth, Nadja Reissland, Sophie Newman, Ellen Kendall, Claire M Hodson, and Julia Beaumont
This workshop will bring together world-leading, international scholars with the aim of developin... more This workshop will bring together world-leading, international scholars with the aim of developing new theoretical perspectives for studying the mother-infant nexus in anthropology. The themes covered will explore biocultural understandings and embodied practices relating to maternal, fetal and infant bodies and the significance for early life development and overall population well-being. This is particularly topical because there is a burgeoning awareness within anthropology regarding the centrality of mother-infant interactions for understanding the evolution of our species, infant and maternal health and care strategies, epigenetic change, and biological and social development. Over the past few decades the anthropology and archaeology of childhood has developed apace, however, infancy, the pregnant body and motherhood continue to be marginalised. The aim of this workshop is to develop new theoretical directions within anthropology and set future research agendas regarding the unique mother-infant relationship. We will achieve this aim
through two inter-related objectives: 1) Our targeted invitation of participants who are leaders in different sub-disciplines of
anthropology and beyond, whose research is breaking new methodological and theoretical ground in investigating mother-infant
relationships and; 2) To assess a series of inter-related research topics/themes through multiple anthropological approaches in order to develop a holistic biocultural understanding of the mother-infant relationship and broader implications for population well-being. Outputs will include an edited volume, 'The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology:
Small Beginnings, Significant Outcomes' with Springer, a collaborative Major Article for Current Anthropology, and dissemination via major forms of social media.
Childhood in the Past, 2021
ABSTRACT Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young li... more ABSTRACT Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet within these studies, the youngest members of past populations persist in lingering on the margins of discussion. Fetal, perinatal and infant lives are tangential; unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings, with their position and role in society typically a product of parental or wider social vectors, these individuals, their experiences, and their roles are complex to decipher. Yet as keepers of both biological and social data – regarding themselves, their mothers and wider community dynamics – these individuals are central in developing comprehensive narratives of infanthood in the past. However, a lack of methodologies for investigating these young lives has been a constant limitation. With recent advancements able to further our understanding of these early life courses, it is now pertinent to focus on fetal, perinatal and infant lives further.
The trajectory and success of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and development is regulated and... more The trajectory and success of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and development is regulated and/or altered by a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Both growth and development exhibit a degree of plasticity and thus may fluctuate in response to early life adversity. Non-adult skeletal remains therefore provide a tangible record of growth and health disruption as a consequence of stress in the early life course. This study represents the first extensive and integrated osteological and palaeopathological assessment of fetal, perinatal and infant growth and health disruption. It seeks to determine skeletal responses to adversity and to provide a comprehensive consideration of the potential pathogeneses, etiologies and contextual factors which can affect intrauterine and postnatal health and growth. A total of 423 individuals from 15 different archaeological and historical samples, spanning a ~2000-year time period, have been considered for analysis. Assessment reveals a com...
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2021
Britannia, 2017
The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Rom... more The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Romano-British domestic sites. In recent years, the discovery of many such burials has led to interpretations of infanticide and unceremonious disposal. Although this has been a widely discussed phenomenon, much of the literature has focused on the funerary context, and the biological age and sex estimates of these individuals, with little consideration of the palaeopathological evidence. This article provides a detailed analysis of 17 perinates/infants from the late Iron Age/early Roman site of Piddington, Northants. It discusses the skeletal evidence for poor health and growth, and highlights the potential of these remains to reveal alternative insights into perinatal and infant death. Evidence of growth changes and pathological lesions were identified, suggesting that these individuals experienced chronic episodes of poor health that affected their skeletal development. The study explore...
The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology, 2019
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2021
Objectives This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimat... more Objectives This study tests, for the first time, the applicability of a new method of sex estimation utilizing enamel peptides on a sample of deciduous and permanent teeth at different stages of mineralization, from nonadults of unknown sex, including perinates. Materials and methods A total of 43 teeth from 29 nonadult individuals aged from 40 gestational weeks to 19 years old were analyzed. The sample included pairs of fully mineralized and just developing teeth from the same individual. The individuals were from four archaeological sites in England: Piddington (1st–2nd centuries AD), Coach Lane, Victoria Gate, and Fewston (all 18th–19th centuries). A method that identifies sex chromosome‐linked isoforms of the peptide amelogenin from human tooth enamel was applied. The method utilizes a minimally destructive acid etching procedure and subsequent nano liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. Results It was possible to determine the sex of 28 of the nonadult individuals sampled (males = 20, females = 8, undetermined = 1). Only one sample failed (CL9), due to insufficient mineralization of the sampled tooth enamel. Data are available via ProteomeXchange with identifier PXD021683. Discussion Sufficient peptide material to determine sex can be recovered even from the crowns of developing perinatal teeth that are not fully mineralized. The minimally destructive and inexpensive (compared to ancient DNA) nature of this procedure has significant implications for bioarchaeological studies of infancy and childhood.
Childhood in the Past, 2021
Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet ... more Children have become firmly embedded within multidisciplinary investigations of young lives, yet within these studies, the youngest members of past populations persist in lingering on the margins of discussion. Fetal, perinatal and infant lives are tangential; unable to articulate their thoughts and feelings, with their position and role in society typically a product of parental or wider social vectors, these individuals, their experiences, and their roles are complex to decipher. Yet as keepers of both biological and social data – regarding themselves, their mothers and wider community dynamics – these individuals are central in developing comprehensive narratives of infanthood in the past. However, a lack of methodologies for investigating these young lives has been a constant limitation. With recent advancements able to further our understanding of these early life courses, it is now pertinent to focus on fetal, perinatal and infant lives further.
The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology: Small Beginnings, Significant Outcomes, 2019
Britannia, 2017
The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Rom... more The discovery of perinatal and infant individuals is common in the excavation of Iron Age and Romano-British domestic sites. In recent years, the discovery of many such burials has led to interpretations of infanticide and unceremonious disposal. Although this has been a widely considered phenomenon, much of the literature has focussed on the funerary context, and the biological age and sex estimates of these individuals, with little consideration of the palaeopathological evidence. This paper provides a detailed analysis of 17 perinates/infants from the Late Iron Age/Early Roman site of Piddington, Northamptonshire. It discusses the skeletal evidence for poor health and growth, and highlights the potential of these remains to reveal alternative insights into perinatal and infant death. Evidence of growth changes and pathological lesions were identified, suggesting that these individuals experienced chronic episodes of poor health that affected their skeletal development. The study explores the implications of these findings, within the context of Iron Age and Roman Britain. At Piddington, the death of these infants is not associated with the cultural practice of infanticide, but occurred due to poor health, highlighting the precarious nature of infant survival in the past.
Antiquity, 2019
The last two decades have seen an exponential rise in scholarly interest and research into childh... more The last two decades have seen an exponential rise in scholarly interest and research into childhood, and children, in the past (e.g. Scheuer & Black 2000; Baxter 2005; Lewis 2007; Finlay 2013; Halcrow et al. 2018). Multiple publications have explored the scholarly origins of the field, detailing its complex and multidisciplinary development (Prout 2005; Halcrow & Tayles 2008; Lillehammer 2015; Mays et al. 2017). Several authors (e.g. Lillehammer 2015; Mays et al. 2017) have also, very successfully, synthesised extant research themes and investigations, and proposed future research directions. Consequently, although this field is in its relative infancy, its voice is louder than ever as the importance of studies of childhood and children in the past is realised.
BABAO Conference, Durham University, Durham, 2014
BABAO Conference, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, 2015
Institute of Advanced Studies: Darkness: Interdisciplinary Insights Seminar, Durham University, 2016
Wolfson Early Career Researchers Conference, Durham University, 2016
BABAO Conference, University of Kent, Canterbury, 2016
SSCIP Conference: The Family in Past Perspective, Durham University, 2016
Theoretical Roman Archaeology Conference (TRAC), Durham University, 2017
Palaeopathology Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, 2017
Invited Presentation: American Association of Physical Anthropologists, New Orleans, 2017
Stressed Out Conference, University College London, 2017
SSCIP 11th Annual International Conference, Natural History Museum, Vienna, 2018
Invited Presentation: Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past (SSCIP) Biennial Lecture, University of Sheffield, 2018
Invited Presentation: Department of Women's Health, St Thomas’ Hospital, London, 2017
Invited Presentation: Forensic Identification Workshop, Durham University, 2017
Invited Presentation: Wenner Gren Infant-Mother Nexus Workshop, Durham University, 2017
Invited Presentation: Queen’s University Belfast, 2018