Introduction

Abstract

This volume brings together a richly contextualized collection of studies that focus on the analysis and interpretation of skeletal evidence of dissection and autopsy in the United States. The chapters present a range of different contexts where these skeletal collections have been located including public cemeteries, hospital cemeteries, privies, wells, and trash middens. The approaches adopted by the authors in the volume are diverse and illustrative of how these data can be mobilized to address a variety of historical and anthropological questions. The significance of the bioarchaeological perspective is that researchers can establish linkages between social and political processes and biological consequences. While bioarchaeologists often examine these consequences as manifestations of the lived experience, the postmortem treatment of the body is also influenced by sociopolitical forces and institutions. This volume highlights how a holistic approach to the skeletal evidence of dissection and autopsy can inform a number of interrelated issues including the emergence of the medical profession, social welfare reform, and social inequality.