Leprosy Mailing List – February 4, 2015
Ref.: (LML) Burial customs of leprosy patients in past and present
From: Charlotte Roberts,Durham, UK
Dear Pieter,
I am just running this question I have by you, which I thought the people on the email list might be able to help with.
I do not work in clinical leprosy (although I was a nurse once!) but I research on the history of disease (and focus on infectious diseases, as seen in archaeological skeletons). Leprosy is something I have studied for over 30 years!
My question is:
Today, is there any evidence of people anywhere in the world, who have leprosy or had leprosy that was cured, being buried away from their community's burial ground when they die, or on the margins of it, or in some different way to the norm for the community (i.e. reflecting stigma, isolation, fear?). I know people's concepts of disease vary considerably globally and I wondered if that was reflected in how people with leprosy are treated in death today.
Can you or anybody on the list help answer this question, or can you point me in the direction of any literature on the subject?
Thanking you in anticipation
Charlotte
Professor Charlotte Roberts BA MA PhD SRN FSA FBA
MSc Palaeopathology Director
Deputy Editor of the Int. J. Paleopathology 2012-2015
President of the Paleopathology Association 2011-2013
Department of Archaeology
Durham University
South Road
Durham DH1 3LE
England
Tel: +441913341154
Fax: +441913341000
Webpage:
https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/staff/?id=163
Books:
Author of: Health and Disease in Britain. From prehistory to the present day (2003), The Bioarchaeology of Tuberculosis (2003), The Archaeology of Disease (2010), Human Remains. A Handbook (2009), and editor of The Past and Present of Leprosy (2002) and The Global History of Paleopathology (2012)
Current research Projects:
Bamburgh Project: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=278
Leprosy Project: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=279
Biomolecular archaeology of Ancient Tuberculosis in Britain and Europe Project: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=353
Palaeopopulation Genomics of Tuberculosis Project: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=667
Invisible Dead Project: https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/?mode=project&id=624
LML - S Deepak, B Naafs, S Noto and P Schreuder
LML blog link: http://leprosymailinglist.blogspot.it/
Contact: Dr Pieter Schreuder << editorlml@gmail.com
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