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Landscape Structural Violence: A View from New Orleans’s Cemeteries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2019

Ryan M. Seidemann  and
Christine L. Halling Open the ORCID record for Christine L. Halling [Opens in a new window]
Ryan M. Seidemann
Affiliation:
Louisiana Department of Justice, Civil Division, Lands and Natural Resources, 1885 N. Third Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, USA; Southern University Law Center, 2 Roosevelt Steptoe Drive, Baton Rouge, LA 70813, USA; University of New Orleans, Department of Planning and Urban Studies, 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 70148, USA
Christine L. Halling*
Affiliation:
Louisiana Department of Justice, Civil Division, Lands and Natural Resources, 1885 N. Third Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802, USA
*
(hallingc@ag.louisiana.gov, corresponding author)
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Abstract

“Structural violence” is a term used to describe inflicted systematic violence on a disenfranchised group by an established order, usually framed as a government or the social majority. The disenfranchised groups are marginalized and not provided with the same access to resources such as healthcare or food, the effects of which can be observed directly in their death. Bioarchaeologists often can detect the visible effects of this violence on skeletal remains, which provide a visual representation to and reinforcement of social prejudices inflicted in life and death. Discussed here is how the same concept of structural violence can be inflicted on the landscape through damage to or obliteration of cemeteries. We propose a definition of “landscape structural violence” exhibited through cemetery erasure as a reinforcement of preexisting social prejudices in death where the governments or the social majority, intentionally or passively, destroy, remove, or obscure a cemetery without consultation with the descendant community. This definition is applied to several examples of New Orleans cemeteries to determine the functionality of the definition and what activity is and what is not structural violence inflicted on the landscape.

Violencia estructural es un término utilizado para describir la violencia sistemática infligida en un grupo marginado por un orden establecido, generalmente enmarcado como un gobierno o la mayoría social. A los grupos desfavorecidos que están marginados, no se les proporciona el mismo aceso a recursos tales como atención médica o alimentos, cuyos efectos se pueden observar directamente en su muerte. Los bioarqueólogos a menudo pueden detectar los efectos visibles de esta violencia en los restos de esqueletos, proporcionando una representación visual y el refuerzo de los prejuicios sociales infligidos en la vida y la muerte. Aquí se discute cómo se puede infligir el mismo concepto de violencia estructural en el paisaje a través del daño o la destrucción de los cementerios. Proponemos una definición de la Violencia Estructural del Paisaje exhibida a través de la eliminación del cementerio como un refuerzo de prejuicios sociales preexistentes en la muerte donde los gobiernos o la mayoría social, intencionalmente o por pasividad, destruyen, eliminan u oscurecen un cementerio sin consultar con la comunidad descendiente. Esta definición se aplica a varios ejemplos de cementerios de Nueva Orleans para determinar la funcionalidad de la definición y qué es la actividad y qué no es la violencia estructural infligida en el paisaje.

Keywords

landscapesviolencestructural violencecemeteryNew Orleanspaisajesviolenciaviolencia estructuralcementerioNueva Orleans
Type
Articles
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 84 , Issue 4 , October 2019 , pp. 669 - 683
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology 

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