Application of the Bioarchaeology of Care Framework to an Individual from an Early Agricultural Community in Sonora, Mexico

New evidence suggests that social ties within Early Agricultural period communities (2100 BCE-CE 50) were particularly strong, as it appears people were caring for each other in the face of potentially life-changing injury. An individual recovered from the site of La Playa in northern Sonora, Mexico represents a 40–50-year-old female with a right hand/forearm amputation and extreme disuse atrophy of the right humerus and clavicle. In clinical terms, healing both physically and mentally after amputation requires an immense amount of time and support from medical specialists and close family/friends. The severe disuse atrophy of the upper limb indicates that she lived for some time after the injury and suggests that she not only had people to care for her through the initial clinical stages associated with amputation, but that she also had emotional support from her family and/or community throughout the healing process.