The Land of Opportunity: Bioarchaeological Perspectives of Women’s Lives in the Industrial Expansion into the Western UNITED STATES (1850–1915)

Abstract

Taking a bioarchaeological approach that puts human skeletal remains in context with historical records, we reconstruct the experiences of three women who lived in the West during the 1800s and early 1900s. Telling the stories of one woman from a homestead outside the city of Las Vegas, Nevada and two women recovered from a sand dune near Walters Ferry, Idaho, we offer insight into what life was like for those who ventured west in search of new identities and roles in developing industries. Our analysis includes documentation of pathological conditions, activity-related changes, and trauma in comparison to other historic cemetery samples from communities growing in this region. Through examination of the skeletal data from these diverse data sets, patterns emerge regarding the health profiles of these women. In particular, the results show that the pathological conditions observed on the three women from Nevada and Idaho align with those documented in the published literature and provide insight into their risk of morbidity and trauma.