Over the past twenty years, the field of Andean paleopathology has advanced significantly thanks to a new generation of scholars who have been attracted to this region and whose innovative research has expanded our knowledge substantially. The papers in this special issue demonstrate how the field of Andean paleopathology has diversified and grown to become what is today a truly interdisciplinary enterprise involving archaeology, ethnohistory, biological anthropology, geochemistry, medical imaging, and genetics. These studies apply theoretical approaches to research questions that are increasingly innovative and nuanced as well as analytical methods that were in their infancy when I wrote my 1997 survey of the field.

在过去的20年中，得益于新一代学者的涌入，安第斯山脉古病理学领域取得了显着进展，他们的创新研究极大地扩展了我们的知识。在本期特刊中的论文展示了安第斯古病理学领域是如何多样化并发展成为当今真正的跨学科研究机构，涉及考古学，民族史，生物学人类学，地球化学，医学影像学和遗传学。这些研究将理论方法应用于日益创新和细致的研究问题，以及在我撰写1997年该领域调查时尚处于起步阶段的分析方法。