Migration and Inequality: Using Biochemistry in a Historical Skeletal Assemblage from Bogota, Colombia

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Skeletal assemblages from the recent past present a valuable opportunity to contextualize bioarchaeological analyses with historical documentation. This study integrates historical and osteological data with analyses of multiple isotope systems to discuss inequality and migration within a sample of individuals (n = 120) from a 19th-20th century skeletal assemblage from the public section of Cementerio Central in Bogotá, Colombia. Rural-to-urban migration in Colombia was common during this period, as many left oppressive labor relationships and civil conflict in the countryside to seek greater economic opportunities in the city. This study evaluates evidence of migration from a sample of individuals buried in the public cemetery in Bogotá and contextualizes these migration experiences using historical and osteological data. This project builds upon previous scholarship, which has explored the potential for the application of stable oxygen and radiogenic strontium analyses in Colombia. Here, environmental samples were analyzed to construct baseline strontium (87Sr/86Sr) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope values for Bogotá; human enamel samples were compared against this baseline to assess residence.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37223.0