Reconstructing the Identities of the Individuals in Human Anatomical Collections
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As a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, Adam Netzer Zimmer conducts research that speaks to a real-world question regarding bone collections in anatomical labs: Who are the individuals whose bones sit on the shelves of America's medical schools? This question of identity is often overlooked, but it's necessary given that research using skeletons is the foundation of many medical discoveries.
Skeletons - the remains after dissecting and discarding cadaver flesh - are essential teaching tools for medical professionals. Acquiring skeletons for study has been a pressing challenge since the beginnings of medical science, mainly because voluntary body donations are a recent practice.
Historically, medical schools targeted individuals deemed "unclaimed" and "unknown" for cadaver use. During dissection, medical students cut into and discarded flesh, and with it, many easily identifiable bodily features of these individuals. As such, these involuntary body donors can only be identified broadly (such as the approximate age at death) using measurements of their bone features. In his research, Netzer Zimmer has designed methods for reconstructing the identities of these individuals whose remains serve as teaching aids.
In an article titled "More than the sum total of their parts: Restoring identity by recombining a skeletal collection with its texts," published as a chapter in Bioarchaeological Analyses and Bodies, Netzer Zimmer stresses the importance of going beyond the current practice of identifying cadavers using individual bone measurements. Netzer Zimmer argues for a holistic picture that reveals the socioeconomic composition, political structure, and public choices that characterized the social neighborhoods in which these individuals lived and died.
Netzer Zimmercarefully combed through the George S. Huntington Anatomical Collection housed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C, to develop this more complete picture. The collection was accumulated over 25 years (1893 to 1921) and contains just over 3000 partial human skeletons from dissection tables in New York City (NYC). These remains are labeled with age at death, race, and place of death.
Netzer Zimmer cross-referenced these data with entries in three other databases. First, the death register in NYC confirms the age at death. Second, the 1910 census tracts provide population information about how racially segregated the deceased's neighborhood was. Finally, he layered on a map of annual family expenditure - a proxy of living standards - to categorize census tracts according to income levels.
Netzer Zimmer says his patience for the work required to identify long-dead individuals is enabled by a deep fascination with how people relate with the dead. He says he is absorbed by how people obtained the skeletons that became part of anatomical collections. In addition, he says he is interested in how those remains are curated.
"I always find it very fascinating [the] various ways that people interact with their [dead]; some people will still physically write catalog numbers on the bones. In other places [they'll etch] the entire skeleton with anatomical markings. Other[s] will [completely articulate] a full skeleton, but it's not one individual, it's like eight [individuals] all pieced together to make up one person."
Identifying the individuals that constitute cadaver and skeletal collections is only part of Netzer Zimmer's work. He is also interested in the sociocultural factors influencing why those individuals ended up as specimens. In this regard, Netzer Zimmer draws substantial inspiration from Black feminist theory, which is interested in questions of difference. Netzer Zimmer applies this theoretical perspective to consider differences in how people view the human body. Such questions of difference can harbor racist interpretations, and Netzer Zimmer points out that there have been "a lot of attempts by white researchers to prove how these differences also make certain individuals supposedly better or worse than others."
Building on intellectual foundations in black feminist and queer theory, Netzer Zimmer reviews the trajectory of cadaver collection policies. He finds evidence that predominantly black, segregated neighborhoods were primarily targeted to source cadavers for medical institutions. Netzer Zimmer grounds this review by computing the odds that an identified individual ends up as a dissection specimen, given the New York City boroughs where they lived and died. Netzer Zimmer's conclusions question common claims that New York City's policies on cadaver collection focused indiscriminately on the marginalized and paid no specific attention to race.
Netzer Zimmer says that in his research, he tries to be attentive to assumptions and prejudiced notions that often remain unquestioned. He says, "That's one of the beautiful things about anthropology. If you're doing it right, it always forces you to ask, am I seeing the full story? And the answer will always be no; you're only one individual. And even hundreds of years of research will never tell you the full story."
Netzer Zimmer utilizes community engagement to learn about and reclaim anthropological stories. He explains that the field of anthropology "has started to find some real success in [community engagement]." His research group at UMass, led by Professor Whitney Battle-Baptiste, asks questions about how best to engage communities in archeological research.
Netzer Zimmer now resides in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he works to identify the skeletal remains in the Icelandic National Medical School collection. Netzer Zimmer says that being surrounded by mortuary conditions in everyday work can take a mental toll. However, in Iceland, he can combine his academic pursuits with other extra-curricular interests, taking hikes and explaining science to community members in podcasts and radio programs. Netzer Zimmer won the UMass Three Minute Thesis competition in 2021 and says he is now "beginning to enjoy the public education side of anthropology more and more."
Netzer Zimmer loves the public aspects of anthropology because he enjoys "seeing the delight a student gets when they finally figure out something in an introductory course." More so, because he can use it to reclaim and "lift those stories that I think are super interesting and that I like to think should be told but aren't necessarily being listened to."
Written by Chinedum Eluwa, PhD student in Civil & Environmental Engineering, as part of the Graduate School's Public Writing Fellows Program.