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TO KNOW THE BRETHREN: A BIOCULTURAL ANALYSIS OF THE W. MONTAGUE COBB SKELETAL COLLECTION by Rachel Jeannine Watkins A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Anthropology. Chapel Hill 2003 Approved by AdvisotrTrbfes^r Carole Crumley Reader: Professor Donald O rti^ / / / k 2 '0 fd C u h c: Reader: Professor >^rturo Escobar ‘ilm iL u kD lii.k ______ R^der: Profflssor Dorojhv-Holland Reader: Prof^sspf Paul Leslie Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3140408 Copyright 2003 by Watkins, Rachel Jeannine All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3140408 Copyright 2004 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. (C )2003 Rachel Jeannine Watkins ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT Rachel Jeannine Watkins: To Know the Brethren: A Biocultural Analysis of the W. Montague Cobb Skeletal Collection (Under the direction of Carole L. Crumley) This dissertation examines the health consequences of poverty among African Americans living in Washington, D.C. during the late 19*'’ and early 20*'’ century. A biocultural framework informed by political economy and ecological anthropology is used to understand cultural, environmental and biological interrelationships in their specific and broad contexts. Research focuses on the impact of poor relief policies, migration, racial discrimination and the Great Depression on the District’s local environment and the health of its residents. The W. Montague Cobb skeletal collection includes the remains of Black Washington, D.C. residents who lived in the city almshouse as well as individuals who lived in District neighborhoods. A sample of skeletons from each group is the focus of this analysis. Methodologies include a critical analysis of documentary social data, a survey of known causes of death and macroscopic observation of skeletal remains for lesions associated with unskilled labor. Two skeletal samples fi-om the Robert J. Terry collection are used to compare data from the Cobb samples with African American remains of similar socioeconomic and temporal context. This study reveals biological outcomes of African Americans’ extremely limited access to public assistance, housing and labor in the District. Unlike previous studies of 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. institutionalized populations, the incidence of trauma and death from infectious disease was lower among almshouse residents than individuals living in the general population. Conditions in the almshouse did not facilitate ‘healthier’ residents than non-residents. Rather, these results indicate the gradient of poverty among African Americans represented in the Cobb collection. Individuals in the Terry sample presented moderate and severe marginal joint lipping at an earlier age, while cartilage loss in joints occurred earlier in the Cobb samples. Different expressions of activity stress and infectious disease within and between samples reflect the impact of local environments on human biology. This analysis contributes to research on the biological consequences of poverty and African American biohistory. The biocultural framework used in this study includes a detailed social and historical contextualization of health and disease patterns. As a result, it is possible to identify how smaller units within communities are affected differently by local conditions. IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. My Great Grandmother, Ethel Labiche, nurtured my love of learning and exploration before any teacher. This w^ork is dedicated to her. This dissertation is also dedicated to W. Montague Cobb, in honor of his bioanthropological research and vision, which has yet to be fully appreciated. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend a special thanks to my dissertation advisor, Dr. Carole Crumley. Her guidance, challenge and encouragement were essential to successfully completing this project. In addition, her integrative approach to studying human-environment relationships served as a model for my research. Dr. Donald Ortner, research fellowship advisor and committee member, also provided invaluable guidance during the development and completion of this project. I also extend thanks to committee members Dr. Paul Leslie, Dr. Arturo Escobar and Dr. Dorothy Holland. My research was also inspired by their scholarship, and I appreciated their input great deal. 1 am indebted to long-time mentor Dr. Michael Blakey, who introduced me to W. Montague Cobb’s research and skeletal collection when I was an undergraduate at Howard University. I thank him for providing me with unique research opportunities during and after undergraduate school, through which I learned about biocultural approaches to studying human biology. I also appreciate his generous provision of advice and laboratory space during the research phase of this project. Prof. Mark Mack, Director of the W. Montague Cobb Biological Anthropology Laboratory, has also been a valuable mentor and friend since undergraduate school. 1 thank him for his support in completing this project. I thank Dr. Clark Spencer Larsen for serving as my advisor during the initial stages of project development. I also thank the following University of North Carolina faculty members for their contributions to project development: Dr. Keith Wailoo, Dr. Marisol de la VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Cadena, Dr. Karla Slocum and Dr. Henry Frierson. Lively discussions with colleagues who were also engaged in graduate studies contributed to this project as well. I always found exchanges with Elizabeth Berryman, Dr. Arm Kakaliouras, Dr. Robin Vander, Dr. Tiffiny Tung and Dr. Sohini Sengupta especially rewarding. I thank the Manuscripts Division staff of the Moorland-Spingam Research Center, Howard University, for their assistance and access to documents from the W. Montague Cobb Papers. I owe special thanks to JoEllen Elbashir (Manuscripts Curator), Dr. Ida Jones (Manuscript Librarian) and Lela Sewell-Williams (Assistant Curator). I also thank Amanda Henley, Graphic Information Systems Librarian, University of North Carolina, for her assistance gaining access to documentary data for this study. Thanks to Drs. Cathy Zimmer and LeShawndra Price for their assistance with statistical analysis. Finally, 1 thank my family, biological and social, for their support throughout the development and completion of this project. I extend special thanks to my husband Douglas Todak with that in mind. I also thank long-time friend and fellow ‘Howardite’ Jacqueline Johnson-Eaton for her support and unexpected contribution to this research. Vll Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables.......................................................................................................................................x List of Figures.................................................................................................................................. xiii Chapter I. Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background on the Research Problem and Overview of S tudy....................................................................................................3 1.2 Brief Statement on Materials.........................................................................................5 1.3 Brief Statement on Methods..........................................................................................7 1.4 Understanding Poverty as an Historical and Environmental Process........................................................................ 9 1.4.1 Understanding Structures of Power..............................................................9 1.4.2 Understanding Relationships between Structures of Power and Human Biology..................................................11 1.4.3 African American Biohistorical Studies: A Review.........................................................................................14 1.5 Conceptual Framework for the Study .......................................................................