| Project Detail |
Investigating kinship relations and cooperative care in co-buried individuals
The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) SKIN project will contribute to understanding kinship relations and the crucial role of cooperative care in European Copper and Bronze Age societies. The project will analyse the nature of different relationships between co-buried individuals in Iberia and Central Europe, c. 3000-1000 BC and investigate to what extent kinship was based on genetic links or on extension of the nuclear family, using ethnographic, archaeological, and bioarchaeological approaches. The project will also focus on allomothering and cooperative care, two practices extensively documented cross-culturally, but rarely investigated in prehistory. SKIN will advance an alternative focus in archaeology, moving from supra-regional and long-term genetic issues to studying individuals, especially women and children.
SKIN: Social Kinships and Cooperative Care explores relatedness beyond biological links in European Copper and Bronze Age societies. SKIN will analyse the nature of different relationships between co-buried individuals in Iberia and Central Europe, c. 3000-1000 BC. It will adopt ethnographic, archaeological and bioarchaeological approaches, including aDNA and Sr-isotope analysis, to investigate to what extent kinship relations were based on genetic links, or instead, included constructs complementing and extending the nuclear family. Special attention will be paid to allomothering and cooperative care, two practices extensively documented cross-culturally, but rarely investigated in prehistory. SKIN will (a) contribute to developing an effective theoretical and rigorous methodological framework to investigate social kinship by reviewing bioarchaeological approaches currently in use, (b) promote an alternative focus in archaeology, moving from supra-regional and long-term genetic issues to studying individuals, especially women and children traditionally left behind (c) give new insights of kinship in prehistory based on both social and biological ties. The applicant’s new skills in human osteology, Sr- isotope and aDNA analyses acquired through high-quality training at the host institution ÖAI and during her MSCA-PF secondment will contribute to achieving these goals. Collaboration on the ECR-funded project The Value of Mothers to Society will create synergies exploring the gender dimension in Europe’s Later Prehistory. SKIN contributes to understanding kinship relations and the crucial role of cooperative care in the past, which are current themes of worldwide order. |
