A burial shrouded by the remnants of life:

how mortuary treatment and reconstruction of life course can reveal personhood of an infant from Victorian San Francisco

Presenter: Sandy Durden

Presenter Status: Graduate student

Academic Year: 22-23

Semester: Spring

Faculty Mentor: Alexis Boutin

Department: Anthropology

Abstract:
This research asks if personhood of an infant can be discovered through the mortuary treatment and reconstruction of the life course, from in utero to after death. A late nineteenth century infant, from San Francisco, helps to answer that question. Positing this social status of the youngest members can lead to the discovery of important social systems, food systems, health and disease, family finances, and home-life cultures. Differential access to these variables still effects people today. Osteological analysis revealed the lesser wings and body of the sphenoid bone, the squama of the temporal bone, and the squama of the occipital bone displayed porous bone and abnormal new bone formation consistent with nutritional mineral deficiency. Differential diagnosis includes scurvy, rickets, anemia, and infection. Historical research shows the site’s household occupants were known to consume mostly good quality beef steaks, little seafood, and an absence of side dishes that required complex cooking. The survival of an infant living outside the womb is highly dependent on its mother eating a nutritionally balanced diet. Proper nutrition can be hindered by poverty, accessibility, ignorance, or illness. Midwives and medical care were available in the 1870s, but prenatal care was unheard. Victorian San Franciscans regarded infants as little more than animals and delayed their attachment, a practice fueled by death rates and burial costs. As discovered during excavation, the infant was buried without dignity. Life course analysis and mortuary setting supports disallowed personhood for this infant.