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This paper explores recent research trends in human osteology, based on articles published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology (AJPA) during two 5-year intervals: 1980--1984 and 1996--2000. Topical "visibility" is measured in terms of article counts; "impact" is estimated through citation indices. Our results indicate that human osteologists continue to publish a range of methodological, analytical, and descriptive research papers that address a broad array of subjects. Analytical articles are cited more frequently than descriptive articles and thus have higher impact, reflecting the discipline's continued commitment to problem-oriented research. Differences in publication patterns exist between scholars during early and later stages of their careers. Articles published by students and Ph.D.s within 2 years of their doctoral degree are more frequently descriptive than analytical, when compared to people with longer career histories. Topics such as pathology, forensic anthropology, and biodistance modeling remain highly visible, while articles on the dentition have waned. An increase in functional research directed toward the postcranial skeleton is also reflected in our data. While continued visibility for morphological investigations is apparent, the impact of recently developed applications in bone chemistry and molecular anthropology is amply documented in our data, particularly during the more recent survey years.

This paper’s primary focus is the investigation of Late Iron Age funeral practices. This is carried out by means of a multidisciplinary study of two necropolises, Randogne – Bluche and Sion – Parking des Remparts, which are located in southwestern Switzerland. The overall purpose of this paper is to enhance the socio-cultural understanding of this period through an integrated approach that combines the fields of bioanthropology, archaeology and ancient cultural history. Consequently, sex, age, pathologies and biological proximity first were assessed for the individuals found in the two studied necropolises. Next, data from these necropolises was contrasted with the archaeological and cultural environment from the surrounding regions. Finally, a combined perspective was developed in order to consider and combine the data collected through these different approaches. The obtained results appear to point to a regional particularism present in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary practices during the Late Iron Age. However, cultural influences from both northern and southern neighbouring regions can be identified in southwestern Switzerland’s funerary rites and material productions, which sheds light on the innerworkings of the Celtic communities populating this region.

This paper examines the COVID-19 pandemic in light of two key concepts in medical anthropology: syndemics and structural violence. Following a discussion of the nature of these two concepts, the paper addresses the direct and associated literatures on the syndemic and structural violence features of the COVID pandemic, with a specific focus on: 1) the importance of local socioenvironmental conditions/demographics and disease configurations in creating varying local syndemic expressions; 2) the ways that the pandemic has exposed the grave weaknesses in global health care investment; and 3) how the syndemic nature of the pandemic reveals the rising rate of noncommunicable diseases and their potential for interaction with current and future infectious disease. The paper concludes with a discussion on the role of anthropology in responding to COVID-19 from a syndemics perspective.

Hominin systematics, encompassing both taxonomy and phylogeny (Strait, 2013), has significant implications for how the evolution of species and traits are understood and communicated. Following a recent influx of fossils (e.g., Brown 'et al.', 2004; Lordkipanidze 'et al.', 2013; Villmoare 'et al.', 2015a; Berger 'et al.', 2015) the amount of diversity in fossil morphology has increased correspondingly. As researchers do not yet approach diversity in a uniform manner, the literature has been flooded with conflicting theories and methodologies (Strait, 2013). Particularly volatile has been the study of the origin of the genus 'Homo' and the extent of variation therein: much controversy arises from conflicting views of the number of valid species subsumed within ‘early Homo’ given unspecified definitions of species and genera. Additionally, there is still a lack of understanding of the extent of and mechanism behind variation, especially within Hominina. The first section of the following paper addresses ‘how can species be identified?’ and ‘how should species be classified into higher taxa?’ The second section reviews the prevalent arguments used to systematise fossils frequently classified as ‘early 'Homo'.’ It considers: the validity of 'Homo rudolfensis'; the morphological, spatial & temporal overlap of earlier 'Homo' with 'Homo ergaster'; the systematic significance of the recently discovered LD 350-1; and finally, the appropriateness of ‘early 'Homo'’ as an adaptive grade.

International audience; This paper present the content of the Musée de l'Homme exhibition "Us and them: from prejudice to racism" and provides a detailed explanation of how this content has been presented to the public. In a second section of this paper we explain some of the analysis and concepts, from a biological anthropology perspective, that were the foundation of the exhibition and provides some information about the current situation in France.

Human populations and their history have been studied at the Institute of History since 1952 when the young researcher Karin Mark started her career here. Later, Karin Mark became a leading researcher in palaeoanthro pology and somatology of Finno-Ugric peoples, and her working group grew. At the end of the 1980s, Leiu Heapost took over the position as group leader in anthropological research. In 1988 Raili Allmäe and in 2004 Jana Limbo-Simovart joined the group. Since 1998, Estonian research has been project-based; in the present paper we give a brief overview of our anthropological research at the Institute of History (and its descendants) in the last twenty years.

The Pretoria Bone Collection (PBC) began in 1942 with the opening of a medical school at the University of Pretoria (UP) in Pretoria, South Africa, where this skeletal collection is housed in the Department of Anatomy. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on the national legislation associated with obtaining, curating and researching skeletal remains in South Africa, the demographic composition of the PBC, and the inclusion of a portion of these remains into a digital repository known as Bakeng se Afrika (BsA). The PBC comprises 873 complete skeletons, 344 complete postcrania without crania, and 308 complete crania without postcrania. Skeletal contents are reflective of the population statistics of South Africa, with a smaller proportion of White (32%) than Black (65%) South Africans. Unlike the population profile, males in the PBC are greater in number (75.5%) than females (24.5%), which may be explained by the number of migrant labourers traveling into a large city such as Pretoria. From this sample, crania (206), maxillae (141), mandibulae (408), femora (137), and radii (134), as well as several other skeletal elements were micro-XCT scanned and are available on the BsA server. A researcher needs to submit an online application to the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Pretoria for access to these collections.

The aim of the present paper is the analysis of old nicknames which relate to the way in which our ancestors communicated. The subject of the analysis are proprial items, which were formed in order to indicate if the speakers were telling the truth, or whether they were gossiping, or saying too much, as well as items which evaluated a person because of articulatory features. The present paper is also an attempt to propose research into axiologically marked appelative anthroponyms within the methodology of cultural linguistics, complemented with biological contexts, especially research from the field of evolutionary psychology and biological anthropology.

The year 2016 in biological anthropology represented a return to the methodical study of classic questions and increased integrative team-based research that utilizes multiple methodological approaches. This review is not comprehensive, but rather highlights several papers that reflect trends in four areas of research within biological anthropology: paleoanthropology, primatology, human biology, and anthropological genetics. Methodological innovation enabled scholars in paleoanthropology to tackle questions once hampered by small sample size. Primatologists approached studies of behavior and reproduction with the rigor characteristic of the subdiscipline, while paying increasing attention to anthropogenic influences on primate habitats. Like their colleagues in paleoanthropology, human biologists also returned to enduring questions regarding reproduction, human adaptation, and behavior, including, notably, a focus on variability in cultural practice and meaning, as well as resource inequity. The publications representing anthropological genetics signify a movement toward an incorporation of multiple lines of evidence in our understanding of human and nonhuman primate ancestry. In total, these papers reveal shifts in biological anthropology toward research that is increasingly aware of the limits of siloed science and attuned to addressing issues salient to the populations and communities in which we work. [comparative morphology, Anthropocene, anthropological genetics, human biology]