Bioarchaeology of Madness: A biocultural perspective on transgression, strangeness, folly, and delirium in the past

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Future of Bioarchaeology in Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The invention of the Ospedale (hospital) in fourteenth-century Italy marked a turning point in human relations. The othering process of medicalization began as an attempt to provide respite for incurable strangeness, delirium, or transgressive and foolish behavior, particularly for those without family to care for them. The disordered mind became a subject of oversight and confinement even as economic and social changes created new potential for dietary deficiency and fostered the spread of infectious diseases like the Black Death, tuberculosis, leprosy, and syphilis. This paper explores the relational and socio-cultural aspects of madness in Medieval Veneto, Northern Italy. We will discuss the intersection between ‘strange behavior’, nutritional insufficiencies, and infection. We will examine what is known and what can be hypothesized about the paleopathological record of madness, including both a medical perspective on pathognomic and non-specific indicators of disease that can result in behavioral changes on one hand and skeletal manifestations of stigmatization and institutionalization in the Medieval context on the other. Through this research, we hope to inspire bioarchaeologists to explore notions of "health," medicalization, the embodiment of mentality, and institutionalization in the past.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Future of Bioarchaeology in Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24099