AbstractThe physiological toll of poverty—from inadequate nutrition, higher disease loads, dangerous and taxing occupations, to limited health care—constitutes a form of structural violence. This violence is often embodied on skeletal tissues as signs of systemic biological stress. Here, we explore the skeletal manifestations of systemic biological stress on the bodies of those interred at Charity Hospital, an indigent hospital, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Given Charity's mission to serve the poorest residents of New Orleans, we expected to see widespread evidence of systemic biological stress in the skeletal remains of deceased patients from the hospital. Two skeletal collections from Charity Hospital Cemetery #2 were assessed for paleodemography and paleopathology, specifically this latter analysis focuses on the presence and severity of periosteal reactive new bone growth, linear enamel hypoplasia and porotic hyperostosis/cribra orbitalia, all skeletal signs of systemic stress throughout one's lifetime. We find that the remains show some signs of systemic stress. While this contradicts the trend shown in the hospital's records, it should be noted that indicators of systemic stress cannot map perfectly onto the health of a past population. It is possible that the individuals who comprised these two samples died of diseases and maladies that did not leave any skeletal indicators; an expectation that is reinforced by the fact that this cemetery was conceived as a response to multiple yellow fever epidemics in the 1840's, a disease that does not leave any skeletal signs.
