Robert L. Blakely
Author of BONES IN THE BASEMENT
About the Author
Works by Robert L. Blakely
Tagged
Common Knowledge
There is no Common Knowledge data for this author yet. You can help.
Members
Reviews
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 3
- Members
- 40
- Popularity
- #370,100
- Rating
- 5.0
- Reviews
- 2
- ISBNs
- 4
Robert Blakely was then teaching forensic anthropology at the University of Georgia in Augusta, hearing about the discovery he organized his students for hands on learning by performing an archeological “salvage” dig at the site. Almost eight years later “Bones in the Basement: Postmortem Racism in Nineteenth- Century Medical Training”, the synthesis of what was learned out of that salvage dig, was published. Edited by Blakely and Harrington the book is a collection of twelve essays that examine the finds from as many different perspectives.
My interest in medical history brought me read to this very worthwhile book. My background is in history, not archeology, and the emphasis on explaining the research procedures on the more technical topics was a pleasant surprise for my techy nerdish side. I can’t say I understood everything about the spectrographic analysis of trace elements in the bones and how they relate to the diet the person had in life but I did understand the implications and the limitations of the findings. Reading this essay was also a humbling experience. My sophomore paper on nutrition on Jamaican plantations was not original but at least I didn’t make any major errors.
I was on firmer ground with the essay on the life and work of Grandison Harris, the man that the college purchased to procure bodies for the dissection tables and to insulate the professors and students from the legal consequences of discovery. Even here, in what could have been a simple biographical sketch the anthropological perspective was, for me, an interesting and fresh approach to biography.
This is the best example I know of of using interdisciplinary research to advance historical knowledge. I learned about medical and social history and this book showed me things I didn’t even know I didn’t know. For instance there are procedures to identify the sex or race of a body by bones besides the cranium and pelvis but they depend on knowing either the sex or the race to determine the other. How do you sex a pile of disarticulated bones? Now I know.
I enjoyed this book, it was at times a challenge but one that I thought was worth the effort. It covers a very narrow subject but it covers it very thoroughly. If you are interested in medical history or modern archeology I recommend you take a look at it.… (more)