Brenda J. Baker
Associate Professor
Ph.D., Physical Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
SHESC Themes: Biological, Social and Cultural Dimensions of Human Health; Global Dynamics and Regional Interactions
Field Specializations: Bioarchaeology, Human Osteology, Paleopathology, Physical Anthropology
Regional Foci: North Africa, North America (Midwest, Northeast, Southwest)
Contact: Brenda J. Baker, SHESC 316
Research:
Brenda J. Baker's principal research interests are in bioarchaeology, human osteology and paleopathology. Her specialty is examining human skeletal remains to reconstruct past lifeways and the health status of ancient people. Baker has participated in excavations in the southwestern, midwestern and northeastern U.S. and in Egypt. She has been the physical anthropologist for the University of Pennsylvania Museum-Yale University-Institute of Fine Arts, New York University Expedition to Abydos since 1988, conducting burial excavation and analysis of human remains from both cemetery and settlement contexts at this important ancient Egyptian site. Other research interests include the impact of contact between Europeans and Native Americans through analyses of health status and mortuary practices, and the differential diagnosis of disease in past populations, particularly concerning treponematosis and tuberculosis.
Teaching:
Baker's course subjects include bioarchaeology and paleopathology. She has taught at Tufts University (1992) and Moorhead State University (1993-94) and was director of the repatriation program and curator of Human Osteology at the New York State Museum from 1994-1998. She did her undergraduate work at Northwestern University and her graduate training at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her dissertation was on Collagen Composition in Human Skeletal Remains from the NAX Cemetery (A.D. 350-550) in Lower Nubia. She has published extensively on paleopathology, the consequences of contact and on her work in Egypt.
Select Publications:
Lekovic, G. P., Baker, B. J., Lekovic, J. M. & Preul, M. C. (2007). New World cranial deformation practices: Historical implications for pathophysiology of cognitive impairment in deformational plagiocephaly. Neurosurgery, 60(6), 1137-1147.
Baker, B. J. (2005). Patterns of pre- and post-Columbian treponematosis in the northeastern United States. In M.L. Powell and D.C. Cook (Eds.), The myth of syphilis: The natural history of treponematosis in North America (pp. 119-144). Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
Baker, B. J., Dupras, T. L., Tocheri, M. W. & Wheeler, S. M. (2005). The osteology of infants and children. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press.
Baker, B. J. (2001). Secrets in the skeletons: Disease and deformity attest the hazards of daily life. Archaeology, 54(3), 42-49.
Baker, B. J., Varney, T. L., Wilkinson, R. G., Anderson, L. M. & Liston, M. A. (2001). Repatriation and the study of human remains. In T. Bray (Ed.), The future of the past: Archaeologists, Native Americans and Repatriation (pp. 69-89). New York: Garland Publishing.
Baker, B. J. & Rieth, C. B. (2000). Beyond the massacre: Historic and prehistoric activity at Fort William Henry. Northeast Anthropology, 60, 45-61.
Baker, B. J. (1999). Early manifestations of tuberculosis in the skeleton. In G.P. Ifi, O. Dutour, J. Dek & I. Huts (Eds.), Tuberculosis: Past and present (pp. 299-307). Szeged, Hungary: Golden Book and Tuberculosis Foundation.
Baker, B. J. & Kealhofer, L. (Eds.). (1996). Bioarchaeology of Native American adaptation in the Spanish borderlands: The Ripley P. Bullen series. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
