Bodies, Artifacts, and Identities: Analyzing 19th Century Skeletal Remains and Burial Artifacts from Evanston, Wyoming through the Model of the Three Bodie

Six burials likely interred between 1880 and the 1910s in Evanston, WY were analyzed using the model of the body-self, the social body, and the body-politic originally described by Scheper-Hughes and Lock in 1987. Martin et al. in 2013 applied this model to bioarchaeological research. The research presented in this thesis uses Martin et al.'s adaptation of Scheper-Hughes and Lock's framework with the goal of explicating the identities and lived experiences of the 6 individuals through the analysis of material remains contextualized with historical data. Skeletal data estimating age, sex, and ancestry were collected. Visual analyses of pathological conditions and burial artifacts were conducted. These six individuals are likely of Chinese ancestry, male, and adults. Evidence from these burials suggests that their experiences and identities as Overseas Chinese persons in Evanston during the 19 th century were more complex than the commonly held assumptions from past decades. By relating historical data regarding the social and historical contexts of these burials to the materials, meaning is derived using the model of the three bodies as a framework.