Stacie D. A. Burke

Tuberculosis: Past and Present

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease with a long and established association with human populations. This review discusses and integrates an ethnographic study of public health fieldwork in the 1990s North American resurgence of tuberculosis and a bioarchaeological evaluation of tuberculosis in antiquity. Based on these works, this article explores a series of useful themes of relevance across anthropology, from microbe, to patient, to social structure, to syndemic. These levels of analysis illustrate the complexities of tuberculosis, and highlight the possibilities for engaging further anthropological enquiry. A final section on methodologies briefly compares and contrasts bioarchaeological and ethnographic fieldwork.

A MATTER OF PRIVILEGE: INFANT MORTALITY IN THE GARRISON TOWN OF GIBRALTAR, 1870-1899

The British colony of Gibraltar offers an opportunity to compare the infant mortality rates of the civilian and military populations inhabiting a small-scale urban setting from 1870 to 1899. Both groups shared the same poor-quality housing, the same sanitary infrastructure, and the same environmental inseparability. Sufficient water supply, in particular, proved to be a daily struggle for the families living on the Rock. Privilege for the military meant that service families had preferential access to a pure water supply after the installation of a water-condensing plant as well as to a better quality supply of water and milk. The availability of these privileges to one group, and not the other, is associated with a marked decline in infant mortality in the second half of the study period.

Deadly occupations: Assessing tuberculosis and accidental mortality among male workers in Sydney and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, 1909–1917

This study examines associations between occupation and cause of death among 802 working-age males (15 to 64 years of age) who diedin two single-industry communities (Glace Bay and Sydney) in Nova Scotia between 1909 and 1917. Employment in mining and steelmanufacturing is assessed for cause-specific mortality among men who died in Canada’s early industrial era, with a particular focus ondeaths due to tuberculosis (n=140, or 18% of deaths) and accidents (n=225, or 28% of deaths). Factoring in the effects of occupation,age at death, birthplace, community, and marital status, logistic regression results indicate that, among the men who died, occupation is a significant predictor for accidental deaths (relative to all other causes of death) but not for tuberculosis-related deaths. Interpretation of these results is grounded in a broader perspective on the nature of living and working conditions in these two single-industry communities.

A Doctor in the House: The Architecture of Home-offices for Physicians in Toronto, 1885–1930

Dr William Dumble’s house in Toronto (Figure 1) looked like many other middle-class homes constructed in North American urban centres in the early twentieth century. The twostorey, brick house with a hipped roof and dormer window was typical in its blocky massing, pronounced chimney, generous setback from the street, contrasting materials, and careful detailing. Such houses were intended to house a typical family: two parents, perhaps a few children, and maybe a servant or lodger. Even the way the architects Burke, Horwood andWhite drew the building’s facade—in soft pencil and red ink on tracing paper, showing the warm tone of the red brick and the rough texture of the stucco trim and manicured lawn—signalled domesticity. Both the house design and the architects drawing, that is, were styled to appear friendly, inviting, and traditional. The house corresponds to the general type of domestic architecture built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a picturesque, non-classical, asymmetrical cottage ‘‘with diverse visual and tactile effects on the exterior and an integration between exterior form and inside spaces’’. Burke, Horwood and White’s floor plan of the house, however, reveals little integration between the front elevation and the spaces inside, which were much more commercial and scientific than the homey exterior suggested. Behind the bay window, to the right of the front door, was the physician’s office; across the hall, boasting white pine trim, oak borders, and a gas fireplace, was a waiting-room for patients. Indeed, nearly half of the ground floor area of the Dumble house was given over to his medical practice, with a close and direct connection to rooms presumably used by his family and live-in

The Barefooted foreigner. A case study of the Scapegoat in Nineteenth-Century Gibraltar

In 1885, a cholera epidemic threatened the British fortress colony of Gibraltar. As opposed to previous cholera epidemics, this outbreak was marked by scapegoating, and Maltese immigrants were repeatedly blamed for the threat of disease in the colony. The historical evidence suggests that this scapegoating was more likely a by‐product of sociopolitical tensions relating to immigration than any true medical or epidemiological reality.

Reproductive Choices in Gibraltar: A Case Study of a Community In Transition, 1960-1996

Times of social disruption and change unsettle community equilibrium and represent important transition points. This research examines the 15-year border closure between Spain and Gibraltar and its subsequent reopening in 1985 in reshaping the community opportunity structure, particularly women’s employment, education, and housing. The study examines 3284 births which occurred in the community between 1960 and 1996, noting a general rise in premarital conceptions in the community. This research compares life course decisions among marital and premarital conceivers over time, stressing important changes in the community’s ecological setting and the powerful role of political disturbances in structuring those changes.