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The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

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The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 8-2017 The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries Kimberly T. Wren University of Tennessee, Knoxville, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss Part of the Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Wren, Kimberly T., "The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 2017. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/4717 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a dissertation written by Kimberly T. Wren entitled "The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries." I have examined the final electronic copy of this dissertation for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, with a major in Anthropology. Benjamin M. Auerbach, Major Professor We have read this dissertation and recommend its acceptance: Barbara J. Heath, Graciela S. Cabana, Lois Presser, Murray K. Marks Accepted for the Council: Dixie L. Thompson Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) The Effects of Racialization on European American Stress in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries A Dissertation Presented for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Kimberly T. Wren August 2017 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am overjoyed to finally be able to thank the many individuals who have supported me academically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually throughout my graduate career. First, I would like to thank God for making it through this strenuous process alive and with a sound mind. Second, I would like to thank Dr. Murray Marks, Dr. Andrew Kramer, and Dr. Jan Simek for allowing me to continue my education in the Department of Anthropology after taking leave twice. Thank you all for not kicking me out for going over the time limit. I owe a special thanks to my chair and advisor Dr. Benjamin Auerbach for accepting me as a student and helping me hone my research project. Thank you for encouraging me and building my confidence. Also, thank you for believing that I could finish this dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Barbara Heath for letting me stop by her office and talk her ears off. Thanks to both Dr. Heath and Dr. Graciela Cabana for pushing me to work on my writing and pay attention to details. Thanks to Dr. Lois Presser for pushing me to think outside the box and believing that I was on to something with my first proposal. Thanks to Dr. Lynn Sullivan and Dr. David Anderson for allowing me to change my mind and go in an entirely different direction with my dissertation research. Thanks to Pam Bailey, Pamela Poe, Charlene Weaver, Donna Bermuda, and the late Donna Griffin for their involvement in every aspect of my graduate career. You ladies are awesome and I am very thankful for your tireless efforts to keep students like me afloat. Also, thanks for being my lunch buddy Donna Bermuda. A special thanks to Dr. Dawnie Steadman, Director of the Forensic Anthropology Center at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, for allowing me to use the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection in this study and for being flexible with scheduled visits. Thanks you so much Dr. David Hunt for giving me access to the Robert J. Terry Collection in the Department ii of Anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History twice because I had to change my research design. I would also like to thank Lyman Jellema, Collections Manager in the Department of Physical Anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, for allowing me access to the collection twice and for staying late on Wednesdays so that I could have more time gathering data. Without you all data collection for this research would not have been possible. Thanks to Dr. Gary Crites, Dr. Jefferson Chapman, and Dr. Timothy Baumann for employing me for almost a decade at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture. I finally finished Dr. Crites! Thanks to Mark Freeman and Dr. Mike Meyers for offering me jobs during the last years of my graduate study. I really enjoyed working with you both. Thanks to my Overcoming Believers church family, Pastor Daryl Arnold, First Lady Carmeisha Arnold, Deacon John Sibley, Minister Michele Daniel, Attorney Michelle Rhett, and Deacon Don Carter for spiritual guidance, prayers, financial support, and words of wisdom when I needed them the most. Thanks to Lorena Sadlauer, Theresa Cash, Ramon Stewart, Jahaan Rafear, Dr. Heli Maijanen, Dr. Chandra Story, Xaviery Story, Sadjah and Shawn Echols, and Tracey Matthews-Wynter for being present when I needed you and for being a listening ear. Lorena you rock! I know I could not have made it through the ups and downs of graduate school without the financial support of my mother Therolan Wren. Thanks Mom! Thanks to my sister Arnequa Wren and my nephew Giovanni Rogers and niece Amara Rogers for making me feel too old to be in school. Thanks to Katina Wren and Niya Taylor for helping me with my statistics. Thanks to my Aunt Carolatta Perry for giving me a free place to stay while writing this dissertation. Thanks to Lexi Williams, Dayton Wren, Solon Wren, Max Phal, Axel Phal, Zimora Hamilton, iii Zalyn Hamilton, Zenoah Hamilton, Kennedy McLilly, and William McLilly Jr. for inspiring me to be a better person. Finally, I would like to thank my late Uncle Jimmy Perry for always believing in me. iv ABSTRACT This dissertation explores disparities in stress among European Americans (EA) and between EA and African Americans (AA) in racialized communities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Comparisons among EA and between EA and AA are conducted to understand the biological consequences of racialization. Racialization is the process of assigning people to hierarchical categories for purposes of political, social, and economic discrimination. This dissertation investigates how racialization might have affected childhood stress using biocultural theory and facets of critical archaeology theory. Indicators of stress from skeletonized individuals in the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection, Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection, and the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection are used in this study. These indicators represent non-specific childhood stress and include measures of the anteroposterior (AP) and transverse (TR) diameters of the ventral neural canals (VNC) of the five lumbar vertebrae as well as linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) frequency data from the maxillary central incisors and mandibular canines. Historical sources contextualize this investigation. The results of the finite mixture analysis (FMA) suggest that at least three phenotypically distinct groups of EA existed between 1828 and 1984. This study was not able to determine with certainty whether these EA groups represented particular racialized groups. Multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) tests found a significant race effect with regard to late childhood /adolescent stress during the Early (1828-1881) period between EA and AA. AA had significantly smaller TR VNC diameters, suggesting they also experienced significantly more late childhood/adolescent stress. MANOVA tests also found significant sex effects during the Intermediate (1914-1945) and Late (1946-1984) periods. v One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests showed that early childhood stress, as demonstrated by AP VNC diameter and LEH decreased over time. ANOVA tests also showed that late childhood/adolescent stress, as demonstrated by TR VNC diameter, increased over time. The findings in this study suggest that explorations into the possible effects of racialization on population heterogeneity and stress heterogeneity are warranted and should also consider the intersection of various other identities such as sex, gender, class, language, religion, and nationality. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF RACE AND RACIALIZATION: SOCIOECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES 13 Defining Race 13 Race in Biological Anthropology 16 Race at the Beginnings of the Discipline 16 Revisiting Race in the Mid- to Late Twentieth Century 19 The Persistence of Race in Biological Anthropology 26 To Die or Not to Die 28 Race in Archaeology 32 Critical Archaeology 32 Critical Archaeology, Race, and Inequality 33 Finding Race in the Archaeological Record 35 Critical Archaeology and Racialization 36 Socioeconomics and Racial Experiences of Europeans, European Americans, and African Americans in 19th Century and 20th Century U.S. 38 Nonwhite European American and Immigrant Experience 41 Early Period (1828-1881) 44 Middle Period (1882-1913) 45 Intermediate Period (1914-1945) 46 Late Period (1946-1984) 48 vii African American Experience 49 Early Period (1828-1881) 50 Middle Period (1882-1913) 52 Intermediate Period (1914-1945) 53 Late Period (1946-1984) 54 CHAPTER 3: RACE, STRUCTURE, AND
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