Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco - (Hardcover)

About the Book

This volume uses historical, archaeological, and
bioarchaeological analysis to study and understand a nineteenth-century medical
waste pit discovered at the former Army hospital at Point San Jose in San
Francisco.

Book Synopsis

An archaeological site that tells a story of structural violence in medical research

In 2010, a pit containing over 4,000 human skeletal elements was discovered at the site of the former Army hospital at Point San Jose in San Francisco. Local archaeologists determined that the bones, which were found alongside medical waste artifacts from the hospital, were remains from anatomical dissections conducted in the 1870s. As no records of these dissections exist, this volume turns to historical, archaeological, and bioarchaeological analysis to understand the function of the pit and the identities of the people represented in it. In these essays, contributors show how the remains discovered are postmortem manifestations of social inequality, evidence that nineteenth-century surgical and anatomical research benefited from and perpetuated structural violence against marginalized individuals.

A volume in the series Bioarchaeological Interpretations of the Human Past: Local, Regional, and Global Perspectives, edited by Clark Spencer Larsen

About the Author

P. Willey is professor emeritus of anthropology at California State University, Chico. Peter Gavette is an archaeologist at the Golden Gate National
Recreation Area. Eric J. Bartelink is professor of anthropology at California State University, Chico, and coauthor of Forensic Anthropology: Current Methods and Practice. Colleen F. Milligan is professor and chair of the Anthropology Department at California State University, Chico.