Abstract

Throughout its history, Chilean bioarchaeology has been shaped by the idiosyncrasies of the country’s political and ideological circumstances. In this chapter, we present and explore socio-historical landmarks that have given rise to the origin and development of bioarchaeological research in Chile. Furthermore, we discuss the controversies concerning the study of human remains and point out the new directions currently being developed within the field of bioarchaeology across the country. We conclude that after a century of research involving human remains in Chile, academic and methodological approaches have undergone important developments in the context of the 20th century's national project, contemporary research streams, and the acknowledgement of multiculturalism. It is mostly during the last three decades that the field of bioarchaeology has expanded and diversified, as consequence of its professionalization and an expansion of the contract archaeology sector. However, whilst methodological developments have made great strides in different areas of bioarchaeological research, theoretical developments have been comparatively slower and have not yet shown an explicit and critical stance according to contemporary social circumstances.