Archaeology 'Brown Bag' Series Lecture: "The Bioarchaeology of Impairment and Disability: Skeletal Dysplasia during the Middle Woodland Period in the Lower Illinois Valley"

Aviva Cormier, graduate student, Boston University Department of Archaeology. Abstract: In 1980, two individuals were excavated from a Middle Woodland burial mound at the Elizabeth site in Pike County, Illinois. Following excavation, the adult female of short stature, known as “the Elizabeth Dwarf,” and associated fetal bones were described as a textbook case of an individual with achondroplasia who died during childbirth. In this talk, I present a new differential diagnosis of a combined skeletal dysplasia, a nearly full-term pregnancy, and a disseminated bone infection at the time of death. Further, I discuss how this rare case of pre-Columbian skeletal dysplasia provides a vehicle for exploring the complexities of interpreting impairment and disability from bioarchaeological remains and archaeological contexts. I suggest the use of a combined approach that uses both a theoretical framework and bioarchaeological evaluation to understand the role of disability in the construction of various identities in the past.