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Dissertation 30 June 20.pdf (5.82 MB)

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“Well-Formed and Vigorous Bodies?” A Test of Revisionist Narratives of History in Pre-Famine Ireland

Clark, Melissa Ann
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6758-3728
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593190170520864

Abstract Details

2020, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Anthropology.
Irish scholarship over the last 50 years has focused on the debate between revisionist and post-revisionist arguments. Revisionists have argued that the effects of British colonization have been overstated to fuel the Irish nationalist agenda in their quest to separate from England. They cite contemporaneous (c. AD 1600-1900) accounts of Irish health, in which the Irish are described as having `well-formed and vigorous bodies.’ Post-revisionists, conversely, argue that revisionists minimize the cultural and historical trauma of catastrophic events associated with British colonialism. The purpose of this dissertation is to test the veracity of contemporary accounts of superb Irish health, and in so doing, evaluate the foundational assumptions of. Health was assessed using two skeletal indicators, namely, age-at-death and linear enamel hypoplasia, a developmental defect of tooth enamel associated with systemic physiological stressors, such as malnutrition or febrile disease. Results show that there was no clear difference in survivorship between the late medieval and post-medieval period in the English Pale, the part of Ireland under intense colonial rule. However, people in the post-medieval period did have more LEH consistent with more childhood stressors than people in the late medieval period. Additionally, there was greater sub-group variation in the expression of skeletal health indicators during the post-medieval period, suggesting greater health disparities during this time period. Intersecting marginalized identities (i.e., age, class and gender) appear to have been key contributors to that variation. Women of childbearing age exhibited decreased survivorship in the post-medieval period, as did individuals from the poorest of the communities studied. These results show that the revisionist/post-revisionist debate needs to be contextualized within an intersectional framework. These results also show that the role of British colonization was not to have one uniform effect on health throughout the English Pale. Rather, British colonization produced extreme inequality by catalyzing industrialization and concentrating wealth into the hands of a few elite. This inequality granted people differing access to resources and exposed them to different types and degrees of stressors, depending on their gender and social class. Marginalized identities became embodied through decreased survivorship and increased number and width of linear enamel hypoplasia. This embodiment could have reinforced overarching ideologies of capitalism and racism by demonstrating to the primarily Anglo-Protestant upper class the perceived physical inferiority of the lower class. Future studies should continue to explore the role of embodiment of intersecting marginalized identities in the construction of beliefs about the deserving and underserving poor within the context of laissez faire capitalism. Second, scholars should continue to explore the revisionist/post-revisionist debate while applying intersectionality theory. In this case, applying intersectionality theory made it evident that the effect of British colonization was to increase inequality rather than uniformly affecting Irish health. Finally, researchers should also continue to explore the potential epigenetic effects of poverty that could have contributed to mass mortality during the Irish Famine.
Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg (Advisor)
Mark Hubbe (Advisor)
Douglas Crews (Committee Member)
Julie Field (Committee Member)
388 p.
Archaeology
bioarchaeology; Ireland; archaeology; post-medieval; medieval; dental anthropology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Clark, M. A. (2020). “Well-Formed and Vigorous Bodies?” A Test of Revisionist Narratives of History in Pre-Famine Ireland [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593190170520864

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Clark, Melissa. “Well-Formed and Vigorous Bodies?” A Test of Revisionist Narratives of History in Pre-Famine Ireland. 2020. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593190170520864.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Clark, Melissa. "“Well-Formed and Vigorous Bodies?” A Test of Revisionist Narratives of History in Pre-Famine Ireland." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1593190170520864

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1593190170520864
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