Research PhD Candidate, Raquel Fleskes, illuminates the history of structural violence in archaeological records

In order to identify structural violence in the past, archaeologists begin by attempting to understand the traces that physical violence leaves behind. Biological anthropologist Dr. Carlina de la Cova has written extensively on the importance of integrating contextual information, such as historical documents, in the interpretation of physical trauma seen in human skeletal collections (de la Cova 2019, 2012, 2011). She argues that this is especially important when thinking about the ways that structural violence impacts marginalized communities. Such contextual information adds a deeper dimension in the interpretation of the lived experience surrounding, and potentially influencing, the trauma recorded in bone (de la Cova 2012). 

This means that while bone fractures and breaks can represent evidence of trauma in a skeleton, not all trauma leaves a mark. Thus, it is essential to consider the different ways that structural violence can be interpreted using the archaeological record, especially in early colonial North America.

Continue reading at https://www.thethinkingrepublic.com/articles/the-tip-of-the-iceberg-structural-violence-in-the-archaeological-record