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Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1195-1875
AccessType
Open Access Dissertation
Document Type
dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Program
Anthropology
Year Degree Awarded
2023
Month Degree Awarded
September
First Advisor
Brigitte Holt
Second Advisor
Thomas Leatherman
Third Advisor
Emily Hamilton
Subject Categories
Biological and Physical Anthropology
Abstract
Tuberculosis has played a major role in the social history of human disease and the development of the human epidemiological models. The demographic and epidemiological shifts of TB mortality/morbidity rates are attributed to the rise of state-controlled improvements in hygiene legislation, early public health campaigns, nutrition, and improved air and water quality. Although these campaigns addressed diverse needs of the working class, few public health campaigns saw as considerable attention in public policy, institutionalization, and improved sanitation as TB. Research on the role of public health and TB have addressed these dynamics from a historical or biomedical perspective; consequently, direct evidence of the biological impacts of the management of women’s bodies through public health policy and TB remains understudied. This project addresses the relationships between the manifestations of TB and social identity, particularly race and gender, and its complex, synergistic relationship to social institutions, overall health, and mortality in the United States within the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This project seeks to examine these relationships with three lenses, the body, social identity, and public health institutions, in women in Cleveland, Ohio through a mixed methods approach utilizing archival records, vital statistics data, and osteological remains from the Hamman-Todd Osteological collection (HTC). Results from this study suggest early life health experiences may not play a role in increasing TB mortality; however, the women in the HTC were under high frequencies of physiological stress across their life course. Social identity in Cleveland increased risk of TB mortality, particularly for young adults (15-31) and those of lower socioeconomic status (SES). Finally, the archival and osteological data from this study suggest that public health improvements enacted in this era may have had only limited improvements in the general population due to decreased access for Black women.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7275/35966026
Recommended Citation
Mathena, Sarah, "PUBLIC HEALTH, INDUSTRIALIZATION AND TUBERCULOSIS OUTCOMES AMONGST WOMEN IN 19th-20th CENTURY CLEVELAND" (2023). Doctoral Dissertations. 2902.
https://doi.org/10.7275/35966026
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2902
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.