Recovering the Lived Body from Bodies of Evidence: Interrogation of Diagnostic Criteria and Parameters for Disease Ecology Reconstructed from Skeletons Within Anatomical and Medical Anatomical Collections

Anatomical and medical anatomical skeletal collections, which are generated by physicians, morgues, and medical institutions, are central to many aspects of osteologicalresearch. These include the production and refinement of diagnostic criteria for identifying the etiology of pathological skeletal lesions. These collections are often treated as neutral bodies of evidence, representative of their original living populations. However, scholars are increasingly attending to the life histories and biosocial lived conditions of these individuals, many of whom were of lower status to impoverished during their lives. This is especially important in light of increasing empirical evidence from immunology and biodemographyon the embodied synergistic effects of chronic or repeated stress and malnutrition over the life course on immune function and consequent vulnerability to disease. Accordingly, I investigate here the contingencies and considerations that should potentially be incorporated into the use of these collections to generate empirical, standardized diagnostic criteria for pathological conditions. I focus on acquired syphilis, a chronic infectious condition, and survey several of the anatomical and medical anatomical collections on which the diagnostic criteria for syphilisare based. I interrogate the utility of diagnostic criteria generated from these bodies of evidence and discuss the application of these criteria to archaeological skeletal samples.