The Corseted Skeleton

"The Corseted Skeleton: A Bioarchaeology of Binding is a fascinating journey into, and entanglement with, the practices of bodyscape and agency. This book is a wonderfully engaging act of scholarship that synthesizes osteological, archeological, anthropological, gendered and historical perspectives, weaving them into a robust narrative about bodies, agency, materials, and society." 

—Agustín Fuentes, Professor of Anthropology, Princeton University, USA

“In this important contribution, Gibson shows how bioarchaeology can be historical, theoretical, and relevant to modern discourse.  Alongside stunning skeletal images and osteobiographies, she details a history of corseting, fashion, and women’s agency usually overlooked in both historical and modern times.  Her integration of social theory, archival history, and bodies pushes us to consider our own modern assumptions about how skeletons are ‘made.’” 
—Meredith A.B. Ellis, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University, USA, and author of The Children of Spring Street: The Bioarchaeology of Childhood in a 19th Century Abolitionist Congregation (2019)

Unpacking assumptions about corseting, Rebecca Gibson supplements narratives of corseted women from the 18th and 19th centuries with her seminal work on corset-related skeletal deformation. An undergarment that provided support and shape for centuries, the corset occupies a familiar but exotic space in modern consciousness, created by two sometimes contradictory narrative arcs: the texts that women wrote regarding their own corseting experiences and the recorded opinions of the medical community during the 19th century. Combining these texts with skeletal age data and rib and vertebrae measurements from remains at St. Bride’s parish London dating from 1700 to 1900, the author discusses corseting in terms of health and longevity, situates corseting as an everyday practice that crossed urban socio-economic boundaries, and attests to the practice as part of normal female life during the time period Gibson’s bioarchaeology of binding is is the first large-scalar, multi-site bioethnography of the corseted woman.