Children as a social and biological barometer of the Early Middle Ages: an interdisciplinary approach to the Lisbon Peninsula between the 3rd and 13th centuries

Abstract

According to UNICEF, in the countries with a major political and administrative instability, there is an expressive indifference or even “invisibility” towards children, and the lowest rates of their health and biological development are inscribed. Considering the child as a sensitive barometer, more susceptible to the effects of the environment, this project explores the specificities of instability flows and their social and biological impact on childhood - this taken as a fluid process, dynamized by biological and sociocultural parameters, variable in space and time. For this purpose, it was selected the Lisbon Peninsula area in the period between the 3rd and 13th centuries, when important historical events occur with serious implications for the population lifestyle. Using methodologies, mainly from the scope of archaeology and bioanthropology, it is intended to contribute to the knowledge of early-medieval communities and also, for the identification of practices and intervention policies to be applied in contemporary communities.