Biomechanics in anthropology

Berthaume, Michael; Elton, Sarah

Abstract

Biomechanics is the set of tools that explain organismal movement and mechanical behavior and links the organism to the physicality of the world. As such, biomechanics can relate behaviors and culture to the physicality of the organism. Scale is critical to biomechanical analyses, as the constitutive equations that matter differ depending on the scale of the question. Within anthropology, biomechanics has had a wide range of applications, from understanding how we and other primates evolved to understanding the effects of technologies, such as the atlatl, and the relationship between identity, society, culture, and medical interventions, such as prosthetics. Like any other model, there is great utility in biomechanical models, but models should be used primarily for hypothesis testing and not data generation except in the rare case where models can be robustly validated. The application of biomechanics within anthropology has been extensive, and holds great potential for the future.

Citation

Berthaume, M., & Elton, S. (2024). Biomechanics in anthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 33(2), Article e22019. https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.22019

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 18, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Jan 13, 2024
• Publication Date: 2024-04
• Deposit Date: Jan 26, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 26, 2024
• Journal: Evolutionary Anthropology
• Print ISSN: 1060-1538
• Electronic ISSN: 1520-6505
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: e22019
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.22019
• Keywords: evolution, evolutionary biomechanics, evolutionary anthropology, four‐field approach, anthroengineering, biomechanics, four‐field anthropology
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2151594