David Ingleman

More than three centuries ago, a man named Kojo became the leader of a group of self-emancipated African Jamaicans , referred to as Maroons . Although Kojo is one of the most famous African Jamaicans of his time, little is known about his physical appearance. Based on equivocal historical sources, nineteeth- and twentieth-century writers generally accepted that Kojo was “hunchbacked”. More recent scholarship has challenged this interpretation, claiming that Kojo’s condition was rhetorical and not corporeal—nothing more than a posthumous colonial effort to disfigure an otherwise indomitable adversary. However, viewed through the lens of social disability theory, there is little compelling ethnohistoric evidence to substantiate the assumption that, if Kojo did indeed have a visible body difference or spinal pathology, like kyphosis, such a condition would have necessarily disqualified him from holding the chief Maroon leadership position. To the contrary, special marked status might have actually helped to enable Kojo to assume power. It is argued that if scholars do not carefully contextualize paleopathological data and allow for the role of cultural creativity, then they run the risk of perpetuating disability stigma. This is particularly important because bioarchaeologists, unlike many other history scholars, have the advantage of being able to marshal physical evidence about specific people that can be used to critically read disability history.

In the 19th century, American society institutionalized structural violence through the development of the poorhouse. These institutions reduced the visibility of structural violence to mainstream society by physically removing people who were poor and/or disabled from major urban centers. We argue that poorhouses may be understood as “heterotopias,” which Foucault described as real places that are like societal counter-sites that are not freely accessible. Foucault distinguished two types of heterotopias. “Heterotopias of crisis,” common in pre-modern societies, were places for people who experienced temporary crisis. With industrialization, poverty and disability became crises. In response, municipalities provided material support to people who were poor and/or disabled, which transformed households into heterotopias of crisis. In the early to mid-19th century, municipalities established poorhouses for individuals as well as entire families who were experiencing what was presumed to be a temporary crisis. “Heterotopias of deviation” were spaces where modern societies placed behaviorally deviant individuals. Mid- to late-19th century poorhouses functioned as heterotopias of crisis and/or deviation, depending on a person’s social identity. By the late-19th to early 20th centuries, poorhouses had transitioned to heterotopias of deviation for people whom the state identified as unredeemable. We suggest that American society’s development of poorhouses as heterotopias of deviation intensified structural violence against people who were poor and/or disabled. We illustrate this societal transformation with diachronic analysis of documentary and bioarchaeological data from the 19th to early 20th century Erie County Poorhouse, including analyses of the skeletal remains of 376 people.

More than three centuries ago, a group of self-emancipated African-Jamaicans, referred to as Maroons, selected a man named Kojo as their leader. Although Kojo is among the most famous and historically best-documented African-Jamaicans of his time, little is known about his physical appearance. Based on one somewhat-vague primary source and one illustrated secondary source, 19th and 20th century writers generally accepted that Kojo was “hunchbacked” (i.e., his spine was abnormally kyphotic). More recent scholarship has challenged this interpretation, claiming that Kojo’s deformity was not corporeal, but rather rhetorical—nothing more than a posthumous colonial effort to disfigure an otherwise indomitable adversary. However, viewed through the lens of critical disability theory, little compelling ethno-historic evidence can be found to substantiate the assumption that, if Kojo did indeed have a visible body difference, like kyphosis, such a condition would have necessarily disqualified him from holding the chief Maroon leadership position. To the contrary, special marked status may have actually enabled Kojo to assume power. Thus, it is suggested that, in this specific context, scholars have traditionally failed to account for the role of cultural creativity in the social construction of disability and alternate ability. More broadly, it is argued that without this type of careful and culturally specific contextualization, bioarchaeologists run the risk of conflating impairment and disability.

Archaeologists recently observed a petroglyph field at Neneʻu beach, near Pōkaʻī Bay, in the leeward ahupuaʻa of Waiʻanae, on the island of Oʻahu. Investigation revealed that the glyphs were carved into a layer of beach rock, located within the inter-tidal zone. The petroglyphs primarily consist of stickfigured anthropomorphs, two anthropomorphs in flexed positions, and other motifs. This poster summarizes the common motifs and depicts the layout of the petroglyph field.

The Jamaican Maroon epic has captured the attention of historians for centuries. Paradoxically, the Trelawny Town Maroons appear to be both the most romanticized and least understood Jamaican Maroon group. This situation arose following the Second Maroon War, in 1796, when nearly the entire Maroon community in Trelawny Town was deported from Jamaica, to first Nova Scotia, and then to Sierra Leone. After the abolition of slavery many Sierra Leonean Maroons repatriated to Jamaica, thus leaving the Maroon population divided by the Atlantic and colonial policy. The documentary film, Kojo’s Legacy: Rekindling the True Spirit of Our Ancestors, chronicles the journey of two Trelawny Maroons from Jamaica on their quest to document Trelawny Maroons oral histories in Jamaica and Sierra Leone, to rekindle the spirit of their ancestors.

This is a success story in the making. Specifically, this is a story about a small farming village in Jamaica, and about the development of a community based research agenda there. This is also the story about how a group of people from different backgrounds came together, as fellow students of history, and how we united in friendship and solidarity. (http://www.archaeologyincommunity.com/partnering-for-heritage-archaeology-in-the-community-of-flagstaff/)