Distributed Remains, Distributed Minds: The Materiality of Autopsy and Dissection

Summary

Excavations at the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery produced a large subset of burials showing evidence of autopsy and dissection. In addition to the osteological evidence of autopsy and dissection, these burials also contained broken equipment and medical refuse which reflect the medical, pedagogical, and medicolegal procedures in use at the turn of the last century. An incorporated study of these materials is necessary to examine the connection between the practical engagement with contemporary medical materiality and the evolving philosophy of the medical cadaver in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America. This paper examines the embodied knowledge and practice evidenced by the commingled burial practices in this cemetery and explores a dialectic framework of structure and practice visible through patterns of artifact disposal and treatment of the body.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2018   •
• The Red Shoes: Toward a Materialized Relationship Between the Living and the Dead

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 563