Reproductive Invisibility: Miscarriage and the Thresholds of Recognition Across Archaeology and Biomedicine 

This paper will be presented at the 2026 American Anthropological Association meeting On the Verge in St. Louis, Missouri. 

Pregnancy loss occupies a liminal space at the threshold between presence and absence, life and death, yet remains persistently marginalized across both historical and contemporary contexts. This paper argues that reproductive loss is not inherently invisible but is instead actively rendered so through the interpretive frameworks of archaeology and the classificatory practices of biomedicine. Drawing on interdisciplinary scholarship in medical anthropology and bioarchaeology, I examine how miscarriage, particularly early pregnancy loss, often occupies a liminal space at the edge of social and clinical recognition.

In archaeological contexts, fetal and perinatal remains are often materially fragile and analytically ambiguous, complicating distinctions between fetus, neonate, and infant. These material challenges, combined with interpretive biases, contribute to the marginalization or absence of such individuals within many archaeological narratives. However, evidence of intentional burial and care complicates assumptions of insignificance, indicating that reproductive loss has held social meaning in past societies.

In contemporary biomedical settings, pregnancy loss is mediated through thresholds such as gestational age and viability, which determine whether a loss is recognized as clinically and socially meaningful. While advances in medical technology increasingly render the fetus visible and audible, institutional practices often minimize miscarriage as routine or biologically necessary, contributing to experiences of disenfranchised grief.

By bringing these domains into dialogue, I argue that both archaeology and biomedicine produce forms of “reproductive invisibility” through shared struggles with material ambiguity and classificatory uncertainty. Employing theories of liminality and rites of passage, I conceptualize miscarriage as an incomplete transition resisting fixed categorization.

Attending to these thresholds reveals recognition as a constructed and contingent process rather than a fixed concept. This perspective opens space for rethinking how reproductive loss is interpreted, acknowledged, and cared for, which informs the development of more inclusive archaeological narratives and more humane, person-centered clinical practices.