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Date: | Tue, 6 May 1997 10:31:23 -0600 |
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The question placed raises many interesting matters of concern. What
would be archaeological manifestations of crime? I'll assume that we're
not talking misappropriation of funds, petty theft... etc. but are moving
on to violent crime (rape, murder, assaults).
Clearly in a medieval context there were many legal (and acceptable format
for lopping off appendiges). In the U.S. up until the 1860s (and for
most of the world for the bulk of recorded history) it was legal to own
human beings. In those times punishment by the sickest of techniques was
not a crime. Slaves , being property, were subject to being raped by
their owners... but it likely was not considered a crime. Hence, not
all forms of trauma which would preserved relate to "criminal" behavior.
Suicides often use the same techniques which are employed by the State
to punish criminals. Warfare, self-mutilation, infanticide, human sacrifice,
farm accidents, industrial accidents, etc. all would produce signatures
on skeletons which could be identical to those produced by criminal behavior.
There is a weighty task here and the discussion should be interesting.
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