Intersectionality and trauma analysis in bioarchaeology

Navigating Liminality in Evolving Forensic Anthropology Professionalism

Emerging aspects of professionalism within forensic anthropology, while enhancing the scientific foundation and practice for the discipline, have created liminalistic spaces and experiences in education and training, employment, ethics, and identities that reflect the broader transitional status in the discipline as a whole. These liminal states and problems are discussed in terms of their creation, development, and potential for resolution. They are interpreted within a liminal framework which requires navigation through significant changes in roles, status, and identity in forensic anthropology practice. Recommendations for mitigating the identified deficiencies, ambiguities, and frustrations they produce include expansion of educational training, certification, employment options, and roles and responsibilities, as well as adherence to standards and recognition and promotion of self-care. Successful navigation of these issues will lead to a stronger future for both the discipline and the practitioner.

Exercises in ethically engaged work in biological anthropology

An ethical paradigm shift currently taking place within biological anthropology is pushing scholars to envisage and develop paths toward more ethical futures. Drawing from case studies in our own teaching, research, and fieldwork experience, we reflect on the complex, diverse, and dynamic nature of ethical considerations in our field. We discuss the acquisition and institutional narrative of a human osteological teaching collection at the University of Louisville as an embodiment of structural apathy turned structural violence, and the need for professional guidance in the potential retirement of deceased individuals from our classrooms. In documented collections (i.e., the Robert J. Terry Collection), we share our process and scholarly reemphasis of the humanity of a deceased individual through contextualized analysis (i.e., osteobiography and archival history) and postmortem agentive acts. Lastly, we present an archeological site in the U.S. Virgin Islands, which poses ethical concerns as biocultural bioarcheologists and archeologists attempt to negotiate the possible wishes of the deceased with the cultural value of reconstructing the community's otherwise undocumented past, all amidst the immediate threat of anthropogenic climate change. We offer these exercises and discussion in ethically engaged projects transparently and with an overarching admission that none are models for replication. Rather, at various stages in our careers and engagement with ethics, we acknowledge that progress is worthwhile, albeit challenging, and that proceeding forward collectively as biological anthropologists should be deliberate, reflexive, and compassionate for deceased individuals and their descendant communities, as well as among and between colleagues.

The intersectional effects of sex and socioeconomic status on risk of mortality in industrializing England

OBJECTIVES

Intersectionality posits that multiple levels of marginalization interact to produce patterns of frailty and mortality, both today and in the past. To investigate how mortality during industrialization was selective with respect to sex and socioeconomic status (SES), this study analyzes data from four burial grounds dated to the 18th-19th centuries in England: St. Bride's Fleet Street, Coach Lane, St. Peter's Collegiate Church, and New Bunhill Fields.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

St. Bride's was considered the high SES group, and Coach Lane, St. Peter's, and New Bunhill Fields were separately and collectively analyzed as the low SES groups. Sex (in individuals aged 18+ years) was modeled as a covariate affecting the Gompertz model of mortality, and SES (in individuals for whom age could be estimated) was modeled as a covariate affecting the Siler and Gompertz models of mortality.

RESULTS

The results indicate that sex influenced risk of mortality among adults in the high SES group. High SES males faced lower risks of death compared to high SES females. The results also suggest that SES influenced risk of mortality across all ages. High SES individuals were at reduced risks of death compared to low SES individuals.

CONCLUSIONS

Increased mortality risks among individuals of low SES was likely due to the low standards of living common in the impoverished areas of cities in industrializing England. However, in accordance with intersectionality, the benefits of high status were unequally distributed among adults in the high SES group, suggesting that men were the primary beneficiaries of the protective aspects of high SES.

Ethical futures in biological anthropology: Research, teaching, community engagement, and curation involving deceased individuals

Although ethical reforms in biological anthropology have gained ground in recent years, there is still a scarcity of ethical standards for work involving historical documented collections (HDCs) at US museums and universities. These collections of deceased individuals were created in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries under anatomy laws that targeted socially marginalized communities and allowed for the dissection of these individuals without their consent. Due to the extensive information associated with the individuals and made available to researchers, these collections have served as foundational resources for theory and methods development in biological anthropology into the 21st century. Recognizing the need for ethical guidelines for research, teaching and training, community engagement, and curation involving HDCs, we held a workshop called "Ethical Futures for Curation, Research, and Teaching in Biological Anthropology" on November 15-17, 2021. Here we summarize the conversations and major points of consensus among the workshop participants on these topics in order to advance these ethical considerations more broadly across the field.

Major trauma affecting the spine, chest wall and arm survived by a 9th/10th century CE individual from Rižinice Croatia

This study investigates a series of antemortem injuries in the skeletal remains of a 36-45-year-old male from the medieval site of Rižinice. It presents the injuries comprising a fractured sternum, spinal hyperflexion, multiple rib fractures, and a non-union fracture to the olecranon process of the left ulna and a patella cubiti, a rare anomaly, which until now has not been reported in a paleopathological context. The research aims to uncover the causes, timing, and effects of these traumata, providing insight into the challenges of life in the mid-9th to mid-10th century.

Using craniofacial fluctuating asymmetry to examine the effects of sex, socioeconomic status, and early life experiences on adult age at death in industrial England

OBJECTIVES

Historical evidence from 18th- and 19th-century England suggests that industrialization's impacts on health were largely negative, especially among marginalized groups. However, available documentary evidence is often biased toward adult men and rarely sheds light on the experiences of other members of the population, such as women and children. Craniofacial fluctuating asymmetry (FA) can serve as a proxy measurement of developmental instability and stress during development. This study examines the associations among age, sex, socioeconomic status (SES), and FA in skeletal samples from industrial-era England.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The sample for this study comes from four industrial-era cemeteries from England (A.D. 1711-1857). Geometric morphometric analyses of three-dimensional landmark coordinate data were used to generate a measure of FA for each individual (Mahalanobis distance). A three-way ANOVA was used to evaluate the impacts of sex, SES, and FA scores on adult age at death (n = 168).

RESULTS

Significant associations existed between age at death and SES (p = 0.004) and FA scores (p = 0.094). Comparisons of the estimated means indicated that age at death was consistently higher among high SES individuals and individuals with FA scores less than one standard deviation from the mean.

CONCLUSIONS

This study supports findings from previous studies that have suggested that the differences in resource access and environmental buffering generated by socioeconomic inequality can impact longevity and patterns of mortality among socioeconomic status groups. Likewise, stress in early life-evinced by craniofacial fluctuating asymmetry-can influence observed patterns of longevity in adults decades later.

Sex, gender, and sexuality in paleopathology: Select current developments and pathways forward

OBJECTIVE

Overall, paleopathology trails behind related fields in exploring sex, gender, and sexuality in past societies. Here, we interrogatively synthesize scholarship on topics not included in similar reviews, focusing on sex estimation methods, and considering the social determinants of health; trauma; reproduction and family; and childhood - to highlight novel, social epidemiology- and social theory-informed frameworks and interpretive devices.

CONCLUSIONS

Many paleopathological interpretations focus on sex-gender differences relative to health, with increasing use of intersectionality. Others consistently project present-day ideologies about sex, gender, and sexuality (e.g., binary sex-gender systems) into paleopathological interpretations (i.e., presentism).

SIGNIFICANCE

Paleopathologists have an ethical imperative to generate scholarship that contributes to social justice initiatives focused on dismantling structural inequalities, especially relative to sex, gender, and sexuality (e.g., homophobia), such as through denaturalizing presentist binary systems. They also have a responsibility towards greater inclusivity relative to researcher identity and diversification of method and theory.

LIMITATIONS

In addition to material limitations complicating reconstructions of sex, gender, and sexuality relative to health and disease in the past, this review wasn't comprehensive. The review was also limited by the relative paucity of paleopathological work on these topics.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

The outlook for paleopathological research on sex, gender, and sexuality is, however, positive; paleopathology is well situated to tackle these aspects of social identity. Future work should consider critical, self-reflective movement away from presentism; more robust contextualization; and further engagement with social theory and social epidemiology theory and approaches, including the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD), social determinants of health, and intersectionality.

Caribbeanist casualties: Interrogating the application of structural vulnerability to forensic anthropology

Biocultural approaches are instrumental to the evolution of forensic anthropology, and this practice must first reckon with its own violences before it can ethically address structural violence at large. We take up the issue of coerced migrations of Caribbean populations and forensic practice at the southern border of the United States, to problematize how forensic identification standards contribute to the casualties of ethnic erasures and potentially exacerbate structural vulnerability of Black Caribbean populations. We put forward that forensic anthropology is complicit in maintaining inequality in death and identification for Black Caribbean migrants through the absence of necessary reference data and methods of population-affinity estimation, and the adoption of fundamentally flawed linguistic constructions of Blackness. Pushing forensic anthropology to continue engaging with the colonial logics that have shaped its understanding and motivation for quantifying human biologies is key in efforts toward a progressive disciplinary future.

Compounding vulnerabilities: Syndemics and the social determinants of disease in the past

OBJECTIVE

This article explores the theory and utility of a syndemic approach for the study of disease in the past. Syndemic principles are examined alongside other theoretical developments within bioarchaeology. Two case studies are provided to illustrate the efficacy of this approach: Tuberculosis and vitamin D deficiency in 18th and 19th century England, and malaria and helminth infections in Early Medieval England.

MATERIALS

Public health studies of present syndemics, in addition to published bioarchaeological, clinical and social information relating to the chosen case studies.

METHODS

The data from these two historical examples are revisited within a syndemic framework to draw deeper conclusions about disease clustering and heterogeneity in the past.

RESULTS

A syndemic framework can be applied to past contexts using clinical studies of diseases in a modern context and relevant paleopathological, archaeological, and historical data.

CONCLUSIONS

This approach provides a means for providing a deeper, contextualised understanding ancient diseases, and integrates well with extant theoretical tools in bioarchaeology SIGNIFICANCE: Syndemics provides scholars a deep-time perspective on diseases that still impact modern populations.

LIMITATIONS

Many of the variables essential for a truly syndemic approach cannot be obtained from current archaeological, bioarchaeological, or historical methods.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

More detailed and in-depth analysis of specific disease clusters within the past and the present, which draws on a comprehensive analysis of the social determinants of health.

The madness they endured: A biocultural examination of women's experiences of structural violence within 20th-century Missouri state mental hospitals

OBJECTIVE

This study employs feminist disability theory and the concept of structural violence to interpret the results of skeletal and documentary analysis of fracture and disease presence (i.e., syphilis and tuberculosis) among a group of institutionalized women who lived and died within 20th-century Missouri state mental hospitals.

MATERIALS

The skeletal remains and corresponding death certificates of 52 adult Euro-American women housed in the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection at the Smithsonian Museum Support Center. Archival and historical literature concerning state mental hospitals were also utilized.

METHODS

Macroscopic skeletal analysis of fracture and disease combined with archival research (i.e., associated death certificates and historical documentation).

RESULTS

Approximately 15% of patients demonstrated evidence of perimortem hip fractures with no surgical intervention, most of whom were labeled "psychotic". Death certificates revealed the presence of syphilis (n = 4) and death from TB (n = 5).

CONCLUSIONS

Nineteenth and 20th-century patriarchal conditions contributed to the institutionalization of women. Women who were impoverished, spouseless, and perceived as mentally or physically disabled were particularly vulnerable to institutionalization. Once hospitalized, patients were exposed to structurally violent conditions including neglect and abuse that resulted in avoidable harm.

SIGNIFICANCE

Historical and documentary data associated with osteological collections is underutilized and can serve to both humanize these individuals and advance our understanding of their intersectional experiences. The implementation of theoretical frameworks within bioarchaeology can also assist in more holistically interpreting the complexities of past life.

LIMITATIONS

Small, homogenous sample size limited by macroscopic analysis.

FURTHER RESEARCH

Future work should increase sample size, heterogeneity, and conduct other relevant skeletal and documentary analyses.

Thoracic trauma: Clinical and paleopathological perspectives

OBJECTIVES

Although trauma is one of the most significant areas of study in paleopathology, most studies focus on fractures of single anatomical elements. Paleopathological research on regional trauma, such as of the thorax, is rare. This paper explores the causes, complications, and consequences of adult thoracic trauma using clinical data in order to inform paleopathological research.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Trends in paleopathological thoracic trauma literature were assessed by evaluating publications from Bioarchaeology International, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology, International Journal of Paleopathology, and American Journal of Biological Anthropology. Clinical publications on thoracic trauma throughout time were also assessed through a PubMed search, and modern prevalence data was found through trauma databases such as the National Trauma Databank.

RESULTS

Consideration of thoracic trauma involving concomitant injuries is a recent trend in clinical literature and patient care, but paleopathological research on thoracic trauma has been limited. Since thoracic fractures tend to occur in conjunction with other injuries, assessing them together is critical to the interpretation of trauma in the past.

CONCLUSIONS

Clinical research into thoracic fractures and concomitant injuries provides valuable data for paleopathological research. Evaluating the likelihood and consequences of concomitant injury in skeletal remains provides a more robust understanding of trauma in the past and its impact on past lifeways.

SIGNIFICANCE

This paper provides a review of current clinical and paleopathological literature on thoracic trauma and demonstrates the importance of moving beyond the analysis of fractures or trauma of single anatomical elements.

LIMITATIONS

Thoracic bones are often taphonomically altered and differentially preserved leading to difficulty in identifying and interpreting fractures.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH

Practical application of the data presented here to archaeological samples will help to advance paleopathological understandings of thoracic trauma.

Remembering St. Louis individual-structural violence and acute bacterial infections in a historical anatomical collection

Incomplete documentary evidence, variable biomolecular preservation, and limited skeletal responses have hindered assessment of acute infections in the past. This study was initially developed to explore the diagnostic potential of dental calculus to identify infectious diseases, however, the breadth and depth of information gained from a particular individual, St. Louis Individual (St.LI), enabled an individualized assessment and demanded broader disciplinary introspection of ethical research conduct. Here, we document the embodiment of structural violence in a 23-year-old Black and/or African American male, who died of lobar pneumonia in 1930s St. Louis, Missouri. St.LI exhibits evidence of systemic poor health, including chronic oral infections and a probable tuberculosis infection. Metagenomic sequencing of dental calculus recovered three pre-antibiotic era pathogen genomes, which likely contributed to the lobar pneumonia cause of death (CoD): Klebsiella pneumoniae (13.8X); Acinetobacter nosocomialis (28.4X); and Acinetobacter junii (30.1X). Ante- and perimortem evidence of St.LI’s lived experiences chronicle the poverty, systemic racism, and race-based structural violence experienced by marginalized communities in St. Louis, which contributed to St.LI’s poor health, CoD, anatomization, and inclusion in the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection. These same embodied inequalities continue to manifest as health disparities affecting many contemporary communities in the United States.

An investigation into the cause of death of St. Louis Individual, a 23-year old Black or African American male who died in the 1930s, reveals evidence of structural violence and the impact of systemic racism in historically marginalized communities.

Twenty-first century bioarchaeology: Taking stock and moving forward

This article presents outcomes from a Workshop entitled "Bioarchaeology: Taking Stock and Moving Forward," which was held at Arizona State University (ASU) on March 6-8, 2020. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the School of Human Evolution and Social Change (ASU), and the Center for Bioarchaeological Research (CBR, ASU), the Workshop's overall goal was to explore reasons why research proposals submitted by bioarchaeologists, both graduate students and established scholars, fared disproportionately poorly within recent NSF Anthropology Program competitions and to offer advice for increasing success. Therefore, this Workshop comprised 43 international scholars and four advanced graduate students with a history of successful grant acquisition, primarily from the United States. Ultimately, we focused on two related aims: (1) best practices for improving research designs and training and (2) evaluating topics of contemporary significance that reverberate through history and beyond as promising trajectories for bioarchaeological research. Among the former were contextual grounding, research question/hypothesis generation, statistical procedures appropriate for small samples and mixed qualitative/quantitative data, the salience of Bayesian methods, and training program content. Topical foci included ethics, social inequality, identity (including intersectionality), climate change, migration, violence, epidemic disease, adaptability/plasticity, the osteological paradox, and the developmental origins of health and disease. Given the profound changes required globally to address decolonization in the 21st century, this concern also entered many formal and informal discussions.