Alcances y limitaciones del concepto de estrés en bioarqueología

The concept of stress in widely used in bioarchaeology in order to interpret the prevalence of several osteological markers. However, in many occasions the characteristics of the samples are not considered. The issue about which information they may offer, and which are the inferences that may be achieved in order to obtain relevant and consistent conclusions, are not evaluated. This paper aims to analyze the significance and limitations of the evaluation of stress situations in bioarchaeological samples, taking into consideration the characteristics of the skeletal samples. The incidence of the formation processes are also evaluated in relation with the results obtained, and two antagonistic theoretical perspectives are compared, the biocultural approach and the osteological paradox.