Anglo-Saxon concepts of dis/ability: Placing disease at Great Chesterford in its wider context

Abstract

Within Anglo-Saxon society, individuals obtained their status on the basis of their ability to undertake required and prescribed social roles. People
experiencing impairment, be that as a result of disease or some other process including trauma or pregnancy, might thus have reduced ability to undertake socially required activities. These people would have been highly visible within contemporary society by their very inability to undertake all required roles. These ideas are explored using a cluster of inhumations from the early Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Great Chesterford. Cemetery topography, visibility of difference, liminality, and etiology are explored in order to suggest the importance of the development of a sample-based approach to osteobiography. These might then be used to establish local understandings of disability,
whereby individuals are viewed as people with focus placed on ability.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Sonia Zakrzewski: orcid.org/0000-0003-1796-065X

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