Rate My Professor Rachael Scott

Dr Rachel M. Scott is a biological anthropologist whose research centers on bioarchaeology, employing skeletal and dental analyses to reconstruct prehistoric diets, health statuses, and patterns of violence in ancient populations across the Pacific, Southeast Asia, South America, and Egypt. She completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Auckland in 2015, with a thesis examining diet and health in ancient Egyptians from the Predynastic period to the Middle Kingdom through dental microwear texture analysis and non-specific stress indicators such as cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis. Her Master's research utilized a biocultural approach to assess types and frequencies of skeletal trauma in five Pacific Island groups from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tonga, and New Zealand. Scott's academic career at the University of Otago includes positions as Assistant Research Fellow in the Department of Anatomy from 2015 to 2017, where she first investigated adult diets from prehistoric northern Chile spanning the Archaic to Late Inka periods using dental microwear texture analysis, and subsequently examined skeletal trauma in northern Vietnam during the Da But hunter-gatherer period (c. 6700–6200 BP). She maintains an affiliate role in the University's Biological Anthropology Research Group and is recognized within the Asia-Pacific Biocultural Health research theme as an Assistant Research Fellow focused on diet in ancient Chile via dental microwear analysis.

Scott's influential publications demonstrate her expertise in advanced analytical techniques for interpreting past human adaptations. Notable works include 'Exploring Prehistoric Violence in Tonga: Understanding Skeletal Trauma from a Biocultural Perspective' (Current Anthropology, 2014, co-authored with Hallie Buckley); 'Biocultural interpretations of trauma in two prehistoric Pacific Island populations from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands' (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2010, with Hallie Buckley); 'Domestication and large animal interactions: Skeletal trauma in northern Vietnam during the hunter-gatherer Da But period' (PLOS ONE, 2019, with Monica Tromp); 'Dental microwear texture analysis of Homo sapiens sapiens: Foragers, farmers, and pastoralists' (American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 2019, with Siân Halcrow); 'Investigating weaning using dental microwear analysis: A review' (Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2017, with Siân Halcrow); 'Identification of the first reported Lapita cremation in the Pacific Islands using archaeological, forensic and contemporary burning evidence' (Journal of Archaeological Science, 2010, with Hallie Buckley); and 'Life, Death and Care on the Otago Goldfields: A Preliminary Glimpse' (Journal of Pacific Archaeology, 2018, with Peter Petchey). Her contributions advance understandings of dietary variability, weaning practices, and interpersonal violence in transitional prehistoric societies.