In this book, Sarah Schrader focuses on bioarchaeological evidence from Nubian contexts to ask the questions, How did people live their everyday lives? And how can we come to better understand the realities of such lives from human skeletal remains, particularly those of nonelite individuals? In an interview with Archaeology magazine, Werner Herzog stated with great clarity and an absence of nuance what so much of modern (bio)archaeology has increasingly sought to bring to light: “We do not need any other Tutankhamun's tomb with all its treasures. We need context. We need understanding. We need knowledge of historical events to tie them together. We don't know much. Of course we know a lot, but it is context that's missing, not treasures” (Interview: Werner Herzog on the Birth of Art, Archaeology 64[2], March/April 2011). This ethos of seeking the everyday and the connecting social elements that bind the bigger picture with the smaller pictures of everyday life is what lies at the heart of Schrader's development of a bioarchaeology of the everyday: a bioarchaeology of ubiquitous and quotidian experiences.
Schrader's development of a bioarchaeology of the everyday focuses on Egyptian-Nubian interactions within the broad buffer zone between the Second and Third Cataract region of the Nile River Valley in modern Sudan, with a primary focus on the area around the site of Tombos—an Egyptian colonial outpost at the Third Cataract. It was in and around this region that numerous Egyptian expansionist incursions occurred leading up to, during, and following the New Kingdom period (ca. 1570–1069 BC), creating a zone of cultural bricolage where Egyptian colonizers interacted with resident Nubian populations. Interpretation of such socially disruptive environs has a long history of interrogation within the archaeological and social sciences literature under such names as Egyptianization, Romanization, creolization, hybridism, and subaltern voices, among others. At the root of all of these paradigms is the question of how everyday existence changes and how it remains the same in the face of colonization and imperialism, as well as attendant shifts in power dynamics.
Taking the colonial sphere around Tombos as the basis of theorization, Schrader develops a mixed-method approach, engaging with aspects of social theory—most deeply, the roles of agency and habitus as explicated by Pierre Bourdieu and the conception of everyday life as the taproot of human society as developed by the likes of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau, among others (Chapter 2); the use of osteoarthritis and entheseal changes related to activity and musculoskeletal alteration as a point of approximation for deriving an embodied biography of lived experiences (Chapter 3); and paleodietary reconstruction using isotopic analyses of δ13C and δ15N values in human bone (Chapter 4). Having outlined a theoretical and methodological framework for assessing aspects of everyday life, Schrader develops a nuanced engagement with practice theory (Chapter 5). The crux of such engagement considers how the lead up to the imposition of colonization around Tombos, the strictures of a colonial environment, and the decline of colonial authority impacted and altered the everyday lives—and by extension, the physical bodies—of Egyptian and Nubian individuals. Focusing on these periods of transition, Schrader discusses various manifestations and approximations of cultural affiliation, assimilation, and resistance as evidenced, for instance, through choice of burial style, grave goods, physical changes to the body, and diet. It is clear from the data presented that the question of assimilation versus resistance on an individual and everyday level is not binary: numerous individuals arguably maintained a Nubian identity while outwardly adopting Egyptianizing practices and appearances, if only to make life under colonial rule less difficult and perhaps out of self-interest to facilitate better opportunities for advancement.
Activity, Diet and Social Practice does not seek to be a comprehensive or encyclopedic volume that takes into account all possible avenues of inquiry. Instead, it is commendable for laying a foundation from which future bioarchaeological research can further develop. This volume goes beyond theorizing the bioarchaeology of the everyday and demonstrates how a classic data-driven narrative approach can advance this focus in bioarchaeology, presenting a socially grounded method of broad applicability globally—not just to Egypto-Nubian contexts.
Schrader makes valuable contributions in this volume to the growing global literature in bioarchaeology and to the bioarchaeology of Nubia in particular. Beyond its value as a socially driven interpretation of how bioarchaeology can move forward, this book also presents a number of novel datasets, making this volume additionally valuable for its use in comparative analyses. It will be of greatest use to those working on the archaeology and bioarchaeology of Nubia and Egypt, and it will be a welcome addition to any university or museum library collection.
