Structural Violence in New Orleans: Skeletal Evidence from Charity Hospital’s Cemeteries, 1847–1929

Abstract

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, marginalized populations in New Orleans, Louisiana, were recipients of free medical treatment at Charity Hospital. During this period, the inception of medical colleges in the city provided a reciprocal relationship between those who needed medical treatment and those receiving medical training. Recovery of human skeletal remains from two indigent cemeteries associated with Charity Hospital provides evidence of surgical and postmortem tool marks. This evidence supplies information on treatment (premortem, antemortem, and postmortem) of the indigents at the time, from which we attempt to discern information on the experiences of those interred at the cemeteries. This examination contributes to recent bioarchaeological research on the skeletal evidence of postmortem structural violence, extending the discussion by considering the elimination of personhood through the denial of commemoration.