Historical Anatomical Collections of Human Remains: Exploring Their Reinterpretation as Representations of Racial Violence

• Author: Courtney A. Hofman,Molly K. Zuckerman,Rita M. Austin
• Published date: 01 March 2021
• Date: 01 March 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162211008815
• Subject Matter: Setting the Agenda

ANNALS, AAPSS, 694, March 2021 39

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211008815

Historical

Anatomical

Collections of

Human

Remains:

Exploring Their

Reinterpretation

as

Representations

of Racial

Violence

By

MOLLY K. ZUCKERMAN,

RITA M. AUSTIN,

and

COURTNEY A. HOFMAN

1008815ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYHISTORICAL ANATOMICAL COLLECTIONS OF HUMAN REMAINS

research-article2021

We synthesize how the tools of molecular anthropology,

integrated with analyses of skeletal material, can pro-

vide direct insights into the context-specific experi-

ences of racial structural violence in the past. Our

work—which is emblematic of how biological anthro-

pologists are increasingly interested in exploring the

embodied effects of structural and race-based violence—

reveals how anthropology can illuminate past lived

experiences that are otherwise invisible or inscrutable.

This kind of integrative research is exposing the legacies

of structural violence in producing anatomical collections

and the embodied effects of structural violence evident

within individuals in those collections.

Keywords: racial structural violence; anatomical

collections; dental calculus

Within the subfields of biological anthro-

pology, including social bioarchaeology,

researchers are increasingly focused on evalu-

ating structural violence, including racial struc-

tural violence. Structural violence can be

defined as harm perpetuated against individu-

als or groups through the normalization of ine-

qualities embedded within political-economic

systems (Farmer et al. 2006). This research

represents a critical part of recent redefinitions

of the field of biological anthropology.

Prior to the 1950s, biological anthropolo-

gists, then known as physical anthropologists,

were devoted to racial typology and played a

critical role in inventing race through the estab-

lishment of racist classifications of human

diversity in the natural and social sciences

(Blakey 2020; Zuckerman and Armelagos

Molly K. Zuckerman is an associate professor in the

Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern

Cultures at Mississippi State University (MSU) and

codirector of the Bioarchaeology Laboratories at MSU.

She focuses on the bioarchaeology of social identity and

paleoepidemiology and paleopathology, with an empha-

sis on syphilis.

Correspondence: Mkz12@msstate.edu