An Archaeological Exploration of Health Disparities in the Anthracite Coal Region of Northeastern Pennsylvania

Abstract

This dissertation applies the frameworks of structural violence and structural vulnerability to archaeological analyses in order to trace the longitudinal presence of health disparities in the anthracite coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Through operationalizing the concepts of the social gradient and the structural determinants of health, this dissertation presents a collection of articles that historically root the social structures that influence health disparities in both the past and the present. Analyzing the social norms and processes that were established in the region by the coal mining industry since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, this dissertation highlights how health disparities in the past have reproduced and repeated themselves in the present.