A Syndemic Perspective of the Canadian Residential School Experience
| dc.contributor.advisor | Downe, Pamela | |
| dc.contributor.advisor | Lieverse , Angela | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Clark, Terence | |
| dc.contributor.committeeMember | Abonyi, Sylvia | |
| dc.creator | Pilgrim, Haley | |
| dc.creator.orcid | 0000-0001-9058-748X | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-02-11T19:43:11Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-02-11T19:43:11Z | |
| dc.date.created | 2022-01 | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022-02-11 | |
| dc.date.submitted | January 2022 | |
| dc.date.updated | 2022-02-11T19:43:11Z | |
| dc.description.abstract | This thesis explores the extent to which syndemic theory can apply to the residential school experience and inform the ongoing archaeological work to locate the missing children and unmarked burials of former schools. Utilizing a theory-based approach that is primarily situated within the critical-interpretive theoretical foundation and the syndemic paradigm in medical anthropology, this thesis aims to shed light on the complex interacting biosocial conditions that contributed to high rates of infectivity and death within the Canadian residential school system. Factors such as overcrowding, malnutrition, unsanitary living conditions, humiliation, and physical and sexual abuse compounded to create the ideal conditions for infectious disease spread and exacerbated the ongoing Indigenous health crisis in Canada. The high student death rate and poor administrative record keeping meant that a number of former students were buried in unmarked and neglected cemeteries on former school grounds. Efforts to locate the missing children and unmarked burials of residential schools, spearheaded by a number of Indigenous communities and Canadian archaeologists, is an important aspect of reconciliation and healing. This work illustrates the importance of using a multidisciplinary approach to addressing reconciliation efforts, drawing on public survivor testimonies to identify evidence of syndemics to then begin to move archaeological research past concepts of comorbidity and emphasize the inherent connection, and consequences, of multiple adverse biosocial interactions. | |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10388/13817 | |
| dc.subject | syndemics | |
| dc.subject | medical anthropology | |
| dc.subject | archaeology | |
| dc.subject | Canadian residential schools | |
| dc.title | A Syndemic Perspective of the Canadian Residential School Experience | |
| dc.type | Thesis | |
| dc.type.material | text | |
| thesis.degree.department | Archaeology and Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Anthropology | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Saskatchewan | |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts (M.A.) |