Abstract
Physiological stress can be defined as an external or internal stimulus resulting from unfavorable environmental, nutritional, and other pressures which affects the body's proper functioning and challenges its ability to maintain homeostasis. The inability to maintain homeostasis during growth and development results in impaired body functions, which may have ultimate consequences on health later in life. Episodes of physiological perturbation, such as a period of malnutrition or infectious disease, leave often permanent indicators of stress in the bones and teeth. The measurement and interpretation of multiple physiological stress markers is a means by which the biological anthropologist can study and reconstruct health and well‐being in past and present human societies.