Recovering the ‘Body Politic’: a Relational Ethics of Meaning for Bioarchaeology

Abstract

Bioarchaeology is fraught with profound ethical quandaries, yet it has lagged behind the larger discipline of anthropology in the development of ethical principles and a professional code of ethics. Here, we propose an additional ethical justification for bioarchaeology based on relational ethics, theoretical work on embodiment, and the produced and constituted nature of human bodies, and on deriving meaning from skeletal remains: highly contextualized skeletal data analyzed in a relational, contingent interpretive space can generate otherwise inaccessible, direct information about the constitutive, productive effects of processes like power and oppression on human bodies. This enables recovery and recognition of the agency, singularity, and meaning of past peoples through giving voice to their narratives. This justification is not universally applicable; it is best suited to skeletal remains from marginalized, disenfranchised, and impoverished individuals and communities. We conclude with a case study applying the approach to a skeletal sample from the 18th-19th century Mississippi State Asylum to demonstrate that the approach complements more traditional bioarchaeological research while providing an additional foundation for ethical discourses and debates in the field.