“Interesting Characters Find Graves in the Potter’s Field”: The Value of Fictive Storytelling in Historical Bioarchaeology
摘要
Throughout the development of archaeology as a formal discipline, the use of first-person narration, storytelling, and creative writing in scholarly discourse has provoked mixed reactions ranging from outright rejection to ambivalence to enthusiastic experimentation. Those educated within a post-processual paradigm tend to fall on the latter end of this spectrum, but surprisingly, few have attempted to incorporate historical and archaeological data into creative storytelling. These married authors—one a bioarchaeologist and one a creative writer—believe holistic bioarchaeological research is particularly suited to this less traditional approach. Storytelling—whether nonfiction or evidenced-based fiction—allows for unique insights into the individual lives of our subjects, a recognition of different ways of knowing, and an avenue that can keep bioarchaeological work multidisciplinary and relevant to the public. This chapter centers on one individual interred in the Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. After a brief discussion summarizing storytelling within archaeology, the historical, archaeological, and osteological work conducted on this late nineteenth to early twentieth century institutional cemetery is described. Then, a short creative story told from the perspective of the county coroner trying to piece together the bizarre circumstances surrounding one young man’s death and eventual pauper burial in this cemetery. The final discussion helps to illustrate the utility of this approach in both scientific and lay interpretations by proving new perspectives and humanizing our subject in a way often lacking from traditional scholarly writings.