Armelagos G.J. and Van Gerven D.P. 2003. A Century of Skeletal Biology and Paleopathology: Contrasts, Contradictions, and Conflicts. Amer Anthropol 105(1): 53-64.

This article discusses a bit of the history of skeletal biology and paleopathology, specifically in relation to the methodological and theoretical focus.  The concept of race and racial determinism is examined and identified as a driving force for the earliest methods.  Armelagos and Van Gerven discuss the driving forces in the historical development of osteology and biological anthropology as a discipline and its forerunners.  One of the main components of osteology and physical anthropology within its early stages was its embrace of racial hierarchies.  After the 1950s, biological anthropology began to develop even the more with more of an anatomical and morphological focus based on more of an emphasis on skeletal biology.  Statistical methodologies (complex statistics like multivariate analysis) were put to use to view and interpret biological data.  Overtime physical anthropology and osteology became embedded within the interdisciplinary approaches to evolution and biological adaptation.  These developments were crucial to the development of physical anthropology and its use across other anthropological sub-disciplines (e.g. archaeology).  Armelagos and Van Gerven analyze where human osteology is heading.  They conclude that the interest in human osteology is not declining but the research is headed towards more of a descriptive approach, with less of an emphasis on analysis and methodology.  Thus, physical anthropology has returned to more of a traditional focus on human identification.  Armelagos and Van Gerven propose that osteology embrace more of an interdisciplinary and intra-disciplinary approach in order for it to become more relevant to the issues of contemporary society as well as understanding human evolution and adaptation.  They emphasize the impact that osteology can have if it is integrated with cultural anthropology, archaeology, linguistics, and other forms of biological anthropology.