Care Provision for Victims of Violence in Late Prehistoric Tennessee

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Systems of Care in Times of Violence" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper addresses care provision for victims of violent trauma during the Mississippian period in the Middle Cumberland Region of Tennessee. Previous research in the region has identified several cases of individuals surviving incidents of intentional violence. However, there has been little attention given to whether healthcare provisioning would have been necessary for their survival. This paper focuses on the injuries sustained by a middle adult male from a late prehistoric agricultural community in the region. The individual has well-healed blunt or sharp force injuries to multiple facial bones around the right eye orbit. All of the injuries appear to have been caused by a large thin or sharp weapon, such as an axe. Utilizing the Bioarchaeology of Care methodology, his injuries are assessed to determine the possible immediate and long-term impacts on his ability to perform daily activities within the specific biocultural context, and what type of care he likely received from other members of his community. This paper will also discuss some of the trends of non-lethal violent injuries and possible care provisioning throughout the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Systems of Care in Times of Violence   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25421