Book Chapter

Broken bodies and broken bones: Biocultural approaches to ancient slavery and torture

Martin, Debra L., Osterholtz, Anna J.

2016

Overview

This chapter looks at the forms of violence through a biocultural lens by investigating two contexts wherein trauma was identified on the remains of ancient indigenous communities from the American Southwest. It focuses on systems of culturally sanctioned violence that relied upon slavery and torture as part of everyday activities. In one context, a subgroup of adult females had been thrown into and buried in abandoned structures; their bones revealed a life of beatings and hard work. Applying the biocultural approach to investigate why these women had been so abused yielded an interpretation of structural violence whereby some groups practiced raiding for women. A second case study focuses on the remains of 33 individuals who were not only massacred but also tortured; perimortem pathologies on bones of the feet revealed that they had had their feet cut and beaten in such a way that they were hobbled and could not run away.

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, Inc
• Subject: American Southwest / ancient indigenous communities / ancient slavery / biocultural approaches / perimortem pathologies / public torture / structural violence
• ISBN: 1118962966, 9781118962961