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8 The “Poxed” and the “Pure”: A Bioarchaeological Investigation of Community and Marginalization Relative to Infection with Acquired Syphilis in Post‐Medieval London
Author(s) -
Zuckerman Molly K.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
archeological papers of the american anthropological association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.783
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1551-8248
pISSN - 1551-823X
DOI - 10.1111/apaa.12091
Subject(s) - syphilis , normative , stigma (botany) , poverty , context (archaeology) , sociology , ethnology , history , criminology , demography , archaeology , psychology , medicine , psychiatry , political science , virology , law , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv)
This research evaluates mortuary evidence from post‐medieval burials (N = 823), including 5 with evidence of acquired syphilis, e.g., “the pox,” from four London cemeteries to determine if the strong social stigma and community exclusion associated with this disease during life continued in death. Mortuary context of skeletons evidencing syphilis was assessed against those without, but no evidence of non‐normative burial was detected. However, this may be less reflective of the effects of stigma than pervasive poverty, an intense pressure to efficiently bury large numbers of dead during the high mortality early industrial era, and social pressure to have a normative burial.