evidence for antemortem or perimortem Trauma among individuals recovered from the 2013 milwaukee county institution poor farm cemetery excavations

Summary

2013 excavations at the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds (MCIG) cemetery resulted in the recovery of approximately 685 burials containing over 700 individuals, adding to the existing collection of 1649 individuals excavated in 1991 and 1992. The individuals from the 2013 excavations were inventoried and examined macroscopically for evidence of pathology and trauma. Sean P. Dougherty (2011) observed that the pattern of traumatic fractures among the 1991 and 1992 collection reflect not only a tendency for interpersonal violence, but also non-agonistic events inherent through the hazards of life among the impoverished of Milwaukee during the burgeoning Industrial Age. Dougherty classifies evidence of post-mortem medical intervention such as the craniotomy and other signs of autopsy as trauma. It is the case that that many types of impetuses exist for postmortem intervention procedures. In the analysis of the 2013 collection, only antemortem or perimortem signs of trauma will be the accepted parameters. It is expected that this study will reveal similar trends of interpersonal violence and occupational hazard, but a tighter classification of how we define "trauma" should lead to a finer-grained understanding of the lives of the poor in turn of the century Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• People that no one had use for, had nothing to give to, no place to offer: The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery

Keywords

Spatial Coverage