Constructing Bodies and Persons: Health and Medicine in Historic Social Context

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Constructing Bodies and Persons: Health and Medicine in Historic Social Context," at the 2019 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Developed as part of the broader human endeavor to gain mastery over the universe – including the human body – through the principles of scientific empiricism, the theory and practice of medicine has been forged through historical approaches to care. Archaeology is uniquely positioned to trace the emergence and development of modern medicine through the objects and spaces of its practice and their interaction with individual bodies. The papers in this symposium focus on the interface between mind, body, and environment. How do bodies interact with medical objects and institutions? How did people build community and shape their daily life practices to care for their minds and bodies and those of their loved ones? How were structural barriers experienced in daily life? Shifting focus from triumphalist narratives of medical progress onto everyday practices and specific settings, the papers in this symposium expand, qualify, and challenge commonly accepted histories of medicine.