“Against Shameless and Systematic Calumny”: Strategies of Domination and Resistance and Their Impact on the Bodies of the Poor in Nineteenth-Century Ireland

Abstract

Mid-Victorian British characterizations of Ireland and much of its population blamed race and "moral character" for the widespread poverty on the island. The Irish poor were portrayed as a "race apart" whose inherent failings were at least partly to blame for the mortality they suffered during the Great Famine of 1845-1852. Recent excavations at Kilkenny workhouse and Spike Island convict prison have produced skeletal assemblages from this critical period. These collections have enabled bioarchaeological analysis of parameters mentioned by the Victorians as indicative of the distinctiveness of the Irish poor: stature, interpersonal violence, and tobacco use. Bioarchaeological data indicate that the differences between Irish and British populations in stature and risk of violence were exaggerated. Such characterizations, we argue, were part of a strategy of "Othering" that served to legitimize colonial domination. This exertion of power did not go uncontested, as the pattern of tobacco use may be indicative of forms of passive resistance. Extracto Las caracterizaciones británicas a mediados

First metacarpal fractures from Chalcolithic Cyprus: A fall or a fist?

“…The Kilkenny and Spike Island show a lower prevalence of MCI fractures compared to Birmingham, attributed to less frequent assault with fists. This lower prevalence of MCI fractures at Kilkenny and Spike Island was not treated as a bioarchaeological indicator of lack of interpersonal violence, rather the authors suggest that the cultural expression of violence differed between the two populations (Geber & O'Donnabhain, 2020).…”

“…MCI base fractures, and particularly Bennett's fractures typically occur in young men from striking an object with a clenched fist (Brickley & Smith, 2006; Ellis, 2013; Livesley, 1990). Scholars have associated the presence of MCI fractures with interpersonal violence (Boston, 2014a,b; Brickley & Smith, 2006; Cybulski, 2014; Geber & O'Donnabhain, 2020; Judd, 2006; Lockyer, 2013; Webster, 2014).…”

“…There is an absence of comprehensive bioarchaeological studies analysing MCI fractures with adequate descriptions, differential diagnoses and aetiologies. Where MCI fractures have been recognised, fracture type or detailed description of the trauma present has not always been presented (e.g., Boston, 2014a,b; Brickley & Smith, 2006; Cybulski, 2014; Fox Leonard, 1997; Geber & O'Donnabhain, 2020; Judd, 2004, 2006; Lockyer, 2013; McCarthy, 2008; Nakai, Inoue, & Hukuda, 1999; Robb, 1997; Van de Vijver & Kinnaer, 2014; Webster, 2014). Often the presence of an MCI fracture may be noted without further description or diagnoses of its specific type (e.g., Capasso, Pierfelice, Michetti, Di Fabrizio, & D'Anastasio, 2004; Hershkovitz, Bedford, Jellema, & Latimer, 1996; Kilgore, Jurmain, & Van Gerven, 1997; Martin, 1997).…”

Famine, tea, and bread in Ireland: C282Y and modern human microevolution

“…In the introduction to his book, Reforming Food , historian Ian Miller (2014) addresses a certain debate in Irish history, whether the population was subjected to colonial or imperial relationships with Britain. Bioarchaeologists Geber and O'Donnabhain (2020) are not so conflicted, listing “colonialism” as one of the keywords in their Historical Archaeology publication that engages skeletal analyses to revisit historical Irish stereotypes of a “morally and socially inferior” peoples, characterized as “fighting,” “pipe smoking,” “degraded dwarfs” in need of colonial governance for better lives and modernisation. The stereotypes were not met in the skeletal evidence and interpretation.…”

“…Bioarchaeological research into Ireland's historical past is less developed in comparison to the prehistoric and medieval periods (Geber & O'Donnabhain, 2020). The discovery of burials at a former workhouse in Kilkenny in 2005 allowed for a large-scale study of 970 individuals who were buried in mass-burial grounds during the Great Famine, and just over half the deaths were among those under 15 years of age (Geber & O'Donnabhain, 2020). The workhouse was the only state aid supplied under the Irish Poor Law Acts of 1838, the starving and desperate would only receive support in return for their labor.…”