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Archaeology, Disability, Healthcare, and the Weimar Joint Sanatorium for Tuberculosis

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Abstract

Archaeologists are well situated for the study of disability because social expectations about normative ability and behavior are embedded into buildings, landscapes, material culture, and daily practices. Archaeologists can destabilize norms by investigating how expectations changed over time, and archaeological research is a way of exploring the intersection between embodied experiences, agency, and identification. Archaeological research into embodied and social experiences of disability and institutionalization can inform current debates about accessibility and healthcare inequality. Window glass at an early twentieth-century tuberculosis sanatoria is an example of how ideas about the body are embedded in the landscape and built environment.

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Funding

Partial financial support was received from the Lowie-Olsen Fund, the Stahl Endowment and the Dissertation Completion Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States

    Alyssa Rose Scott Ph.D.

  2. Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., 200 Gate 5 Road, Suite 102, 94965, Sausalito, CA, United States

    Alyssa Rose Scott Ph.D.

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  1. Alyssa Rose Scott Ph.D.
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Correspondence to Alyssa Rose Scott Ph.D..

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The Tuberculosis Sanatorium Oral History Project was approved by a Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects. The CHPS call number for this project is 2017-10-10382.

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Scott, A.R. Archaeology, Disability, Healthcare, and the Weimar Joint Sanatorium for Tuberculosis. Int J Histor Archaeol 27, 201–219 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-022-00661-8

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