The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy in the United States

Encountering evidence of postmortem examinations - dissection or autopsy- in historic skeletal collections is relatively rare, but recently there has been an increase in the number of reported instances. The Bioarchaeology of Dissection and Autopsy brings together in a single volume the skeletal evidence of postmortem examination in the United States. Ranging from the early colonial period to the early 1900's, from a coffeehouse at Colonial Williamsburg to a Quaker burial vault in lower Manhattan, the contributions to this volume demonstrate the interpretive significance of a historically and theoretically contextualized bioarchaeology. The authors employ a wide range of perspectives, demonstrating how bioarchaeological evidence can be used to address a wide range of themes including social identity and marginalization, racialization, the nature of the body and fragmentation, and the emergence of medical practice and authority in the United States.

Foreword I:
Debra L. Martin
. - Foreword II:
Michael Sappol
. - Chapter 1: Introduction
Kenneth C. Nystrom
. - Section I: Evidence from Early Colonial America. - Chapter 2: Renaissance Anatomy in the Americas: A Bioarchaeological Perspective on the Earliest Skeletal Evidence of Autopsy in the New World
Thomas Crist and Marcella Sorg
. - Chapter 3: Skeletal and Artifact Evidence for Surgery and Autopsy at James Fort
Karin S. Bruwelheide, Douglas W. Owsley, Jamie E. May, and Beverly A. Straube
. - Chapter 4: A Dissection at the Coffeehouse? The Performance of Anatomical Expertise in Colonial America
Ellen Chapman and Mark Kostro
. - Section II: Evidence from Public Cemeteries. - Chapter 5: Partible Persons or Persons Apart: Anatomized Remains from the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Burial Vaults
Shannon Novak
. - Section III: Evidence from Medical Institutions. - Chapter 6: Teachings of the Dead: The Archaeology of Anatomized Remains fromHolden Chapel, Harvard University
Christina J. Hodge, Jane Lyden Rousseau, and Michèle E. Morgan
. - Chapter 7: Commingled Skeletal Remains from a Well on the Medical College of Virginia Campus
Doug Owsley, Karin Bruwelheide, Merry Outlaw, Richard L. Jantz, and Jodi L. Koste
. - Chapter 8: Structural Violence in New Orleans: Skeletal Evidence from Charity Hospital s Cemeteries, 1847-1929
Christine Halling and Ryan Seidemann
. - Chapter 9: Dissection and Documented Skeletal Collections
Jennifer Muller, Kristen Pearlstein, and Carlina de la Cova
. - Section IV: Evidence from Almshouse Cemeteries. - Chapter 10: Autopsy, Dissection, and Anatomical Exploration: The Post-Mortem Fate of the Underclass and Institutionalized in Old Milwaukee
Sean Dougherty and Normal Sullivan
. - Chapter 11: " You couldn t identify your grandmother if she were in that party" : The Bioarchaeology of Postmortem Investigation at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery
Patricia B. Richards, Catherine R. Jones, Emily Mueller Epstein, and Thomas J. Zych
. - Chapter 12: The mangled remains of what had been humanity : Evidence of Autopsy and Dissection at Philadelphia s Blockley Almshouse, 1835-1895
Thomas Crist, Douglas Mooney, and Kimberly Morrell
. - Chapter 13: Structural Inequality of the Socially Marginalized and Postmortem Examination at the Erie County Poorhouse
Kenneth C. Nystrom, Joyce Sirianni, Rosanne Higgins, Jennifer Raines, and Douglas Perrelli
. - Chapter 14: Exploring Evidence of 19th Century Dissection in the Dunning Poorhouse Cemetery
Anne Grauer, Vanessa Lathrop, and Taylor Timoteo
. - Chapter 15: A Historical and Osteological Analysis of Postmortem Medical Practices from the Albany County Almshouse Cemetery Skeletal Sample in Albany, New York.
Kimberly Lowe Lusignan
. - Chapter 16: The anthropology of dissection and autopsy
Kenneth C. Nystrom
.