Cultural Contingencies of Alcoholism: Variations between and within Nineteenth-Century Urban Ethnic Groups in Alcohol-Related Death Rates

Room, Robin

doi:10.2307/2948328

Cited by 31 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…esophageal cancer and alcoholic psychoses) among blacks that are distributed similarly to liver cirrhosis [67,68]. Other highly urbanized populations that endured a long period of immigrant status such as Italians and Jews in the U.S. have consistently maintained very low rates of alcoholrelated problems [69]. Furthermore, in parts of the world without a 19th century temperance tradition, rural areas often have higher levels of alcohol consumption than cities [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration, Cultural Transformation and the Rise of Black Liver Cirrhosis Mortality

Herd¹

1985

British Journal of Addiction

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Throughout the 19th and most ofthe 20th century, liver cirrohsis mortality rates among U.S. blacks were usually similar to or slightly below rates in the white population. After 1955 this pattem rapidly changed and black Americans experienced an epidemic of cirrhosis which greatly exceeded the moderate increases in the white population. Increases in cirrhosis mortality were highly specific to geographical region. Rates among blacks increased as much as four limes in urbanised coastal and northern regions and remained low in the southem rural areas of the U.S. Among whites this pattem was reversed and tnortality rates increased more in the south than in northem industrial areas.This paper analyses these epidemiological trends vnth a focus on cohort differences and migration patterns in the U.S. black population. The contemporary distribution of Hack cirrhosis rates appears to refiect in part, shifts in the political climate of the 19th century temperance movement and the mass migration of blacks from the rural south to the urban north in the early decades ofthe century. The early 19th century temperance movement was highly favourable to black political liberty thus creating marty black allies for temperance; by the tum of the century the political base of the temperance movement became associated with strategies for black political disfranchisement and racial segregation, thus alienating many blacks. These changes in the movement and the simultaneous mass migration of blacks to 'wef urban areas seemed to stimulate a rapid alcoholisation of some parts ofthe black population beginning in the 1920s and 1930s.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration, Cultural Transformation and the Rise of Black Liver Cirrhosis Mortality

Herd¹

1985

British Journal of Addiction

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“…In any event, whether these two indices constitute two separate measures of alcoholism or are merely two facets of the same measure, it is clear that Ireland has a very low international rank by reference to either. This finding is at variance with the evidence on the Irish in America, where it has been found that 'for both alcoholism and liver disease, the Irish rate is by far the highest' (Room, 1968). However, this study of American mortality statistics was confined to nineteenth century census data, and no more recent material is available.…”

Section: Consumption Of Alcohol Per Personmentioning

confidence: 70%

Validity of indices of alcoholism: a comment from Irish experience.

Walsh¹,

Walsh²

1973

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health

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“…All four skeletons show indicators of musculoskeletal, infectious disease and addictive substance (i.e., tobacco) stressors [155]. While debate persists on the roles of senescence, etiology and coding standards on entheseal pathologies [156–158], male individuals B2 and B3 show rugosity and arthritic changes likely associated with manual labor [11, 159–161].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

"The dead shall be raised": Multidisciplinary analysis of human skeletons reveals complexity in 19th century immigrant socioeconomic history and identity in New Haven, Connecticut

et al. 2019

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In July 2011, renovations to Yale-New Haven Hospital inadvertently exposed the cemetery of Christ Church, New Haven, Connecticut’s first Catholic cemetery. While this cemetery was active between 1833 and 1851, both the church and its cemetery disappeared from public records, making the discovery serendipitous. Four relatively well-preserved adult skeletons were recovered with few artifacts. All four individuals show indicators of manual labor, health and disease stressors, and dental health issues. Two show indicators of trauma, with the possibility of judicial hanging in one individual. Musculoskeletal markings are consistent with physical stress, and two individuals have arthritic indicators of repetitive movement/specialized activities. Radiographic analyses show osteopenia, healed trauma, and other pathologies in several individuals. Dental calculus analysis did not identify any tuberculosis indicators, despite osteological markers. Isotopic analyses of teeth indicate that all four were likely recent immigrants to the Northeastern United States. Nuclear and mitochondrial DNA were recovered from three individuals, and these analyses identified ancestry, hair/eye color, and relatedness. Genetic and isotopic results upended our initial ancestry assessment based on burial context alone. These individuals provide biocultural evidence of New Haven’s Industrial Revolution and the plasticity of ethnic and religious identity in the immigrant experience. Their recovery and the multifaceted analyses described here illuminate a previously undescribed part of the city’s rich history. The collective expertise of biological, geochemical, archaeological, and historical researchers interprets socioeconomic and cultural identity better than any one could alone. Our combined efforts changed our initial assumptions of a poor urban Catholic cemetery’s membership, and provide a template for future discoveries and analyses.

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Cultural Contingencies of Alcoholism: Variations between and within Nineteenth-Century Urban Ethnic Groups in Alcohol-Related Death Rates

Cited by 31 publications

References 15 publications

Migration, Cultural Transformation and the Rise of Black Liver Cirrhosis Mortality

Migration, Cultural Transformation and the Rise of Black Liver Cirrhosis Mortality

Validity of indices of alcoholism: a comment from Irish experience.

"The dead shall be raised": Multidisciplinary analysis of human skeletons reveals complexity in 19th century immigrant socioeconomic history and identity in New Haven, Connecticut

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