Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795–1801

Herndon, Ruth Wallis; Challú, Amílcar E.

doi:10.1162/jinh_a_00501

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(2 reference statements)

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“…As there were fewer jobs available, and as most could not afford public transportation at the time, people were forced to move around the country to find work. There was a nearly 1,000 percent increase in the size of urban populations in the United States between 1800 and 1850 (Curry ) with rates of mobility within the city as well (Herndon and Challú ). The work that was available was low paying, dangerous, and tended to be seasonal (Katz ), which created cycles of poverty that would have had negative health consequences and increased the likelihood that individuals would have to seek relief at almshouses.…”

Section: The Structural Inequality Of the Poormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a growing set of archaeological (Baugher ; Baugher and Lenik ; Bell ; Herdon and Challú ; Huey ; Spencer‐Wood ; Spencer‐Wood and Baugher ) and bioarchaeological (Grauer et al ; Higgins et al ; Higgins and Sirianni ; Sirianni and Higgins ; Sutter ) literature on almshouses in the United States. Several skeletal collections deriving from such contexts, many of which have evidence of postmortem examination, have been recovered and analyzed (Table ).…”

Section: Almshouse Bioarchaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Bioarchaeology of Structural Violence and Dissection in the 19th‐Century United States

Nystrom

2014

American Anthropologist

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Structural violence is harm done to individuals or groups through the normalization of social inequalities in political-economic organization. Researchers working in both modern and prehistoric contexts focus on the lived experiences of individuals and the health disparities that arise from such violence. With this article, I seek to contribute to this literature by considering how skeletal evidence of dissection from the 19th-century United States reflects structural violence. I focus on "death experiences" and suggest that studies of structural violence must consider not only how inequality may be embodied as health disparities in the living but also "disembodiment" and the treatment and fate of the dead body. [bioarchaeology, dissection, autopsy, structural violence, United States] RESUMEN Violencia estructural es el daño hecho a individuos o grupos a través de la normalización de desigualdades sociales en una organización político-económica. Investigadores trabajando en contextos tanto modernos como prehistóricos se centran en las experiencias vividas por individuos y las disparidades en salud surgidas de tal violencia. Con este artículo, busco contribuir aésta literatura a través de considerar cómo evidencia esqueletal de disección del siglo XIX en los Estados Unidos refleja violencia estructural. Me enfoco en las "experiencias de muerte" y sugiero que estudios de violencia estructural deben considerar no sólo cómo la desigualdad puede ser corporizada como disparidades en salud en el viviente, sino también en "descorporización" y el tratamiento y destino del cuerpo muerto. [bioarqueología, disección, violencia estructural, Estados Unidos] S tructural violence is harm done to individuals or groups through the normalization of inequalities that are intimately, and invisibly, embedded in political-economic organization (Farmer et al. 2006). Research on modern groups (Farmer 2004;Farmer et al. 2006;Holmes 2013) and bioarchaeological skeletal collections (Harrod et al. 2012; Klaus 2012) that employ the concept of structural violence have focused on the lived experiences of individuals and the resulting health disparities. The former have considered the relationship between embedded social inequalities and chronic infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, while the latter have examined skeletal markers of systemic physiological stress (e.g., linear enamel hypoplasias, porotic hyperostosis) and traumatic injury. Here I focus on skeletal evidence of postmortem examination (i.e., dissection and

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Section: The Structural Inequality Of the Poormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Almshouse Bioarchaeologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Bioarchaeology of Structural Violence and Dissection in the 19th‐Century United States

Nystrom

2014

American Anthropologist

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Norway’s Industrial Beginnings: New Life Challenges, Recurring Poverty, and the Path to Tukthuset, Oslo House of Corrections

Madden

Drew

2020

Bioarchaeology and Social Theory

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Broken Family Ties: Black, Enceinte, and Indigent at Tewksbury Almshouse

Butler-Mokoro

2022

Genealogy

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Tracing family lineage through women has unique challenges that are made only more difficult when a woman has resided in a state-run social institution and is Black. This article focuses on six pregnant Black women who were residents at the Tewksbury Almshouse in Massachusetts between 1854 and 1884. I examine the way the women’s names and other aspects of their identities were recorded in the intake records and in state birth and U.S. Census records. I contend that the women were not treated with dignity and respect, such that their names were often misspelled, shortened, and documented incorrectly. Part of my argument is that this was done partially because many of the women were pregnant with a white man’s baby and were poor, domestic Black women carrying a bi-racial baby out of wedlock. All of this has made it challenging to trace the family ties of the women once they left Tewksbury. I argue that the way in which these women were treated and documented (or not) reflects the devaluing of Black women and, especially, Black pregnant women.

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Mapping the Boston Poor: Inmates of the Boston Almshouse, 1795–1801

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

The Bioarchaeology of Structural Violence and Dissection in the 19th‐Century United States

The Bioarchaeology of Structural Violence and Dissection in the 19th‐Century United States

Norway’s Industrial Beginnings: New Life Challenges, Recurring Poverty, and the Path to Tukthuset, Oslo House of Corrections

Broken Family Ties: Black, Enceinte, and Indigent at Tewksbury Almshouse

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