Coal Mining and Multigenerational Punishment: Exploring Long-term Health Impacts in Coal Mining Communities

Summary

This is a paper/report submission presented at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The anthracite coal region is known as the unhealthiest and unhappiest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This reputation, however, is not merely a contemporary phenomenon that has manifested within the twenty-first century; rather, it is the result of historically rooted processes that have had disproportionate and long lasting impacts on the health and well-being of coal mining communities in Northeastern Pennsylvania. By applying the concept of multi-generational punishment to archaeological analyses of the health of coal mining communities during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, archaeologists can contribute much needed information regarding the longitudinal health trajectories of these communities and their descendants. This longitudinal health-related data can help provide a better understanding of the structural roots of health inequality that is making the anthracite coal region so unhealthy and unhappy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• 2020 SHA General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 364