dead bodies
I am a bioarchaeologist by training. Bioarchaeology, as I write at the outset of Theorizing Bioarchaeology, “is an evidence-based and interdisciplinary field of study within anthropology [that]…involves the analysis of human bodies unearthed from ancient and historic contexts.” Over the years, in my bioarchaeological work, I have found dead bodies to be an especially rich, highly sensitive, and politicized source of information. For this reason, I aim to develop a bioethos, a more ethical practice for researchers, educators, and students that becomes habitual but is also emendable.
The Ancient Maya | My study of dead bodies began with doctoral research of ancient Maya burials in northwestern Belize’s Rio Bravo Conservation & Management Area (1997-2001). I have since used the data collected to narrate both life and death histories. That is, bones and the spaces in which they are found can communicate cultural information about the ways a community mourned and memorialized their dead (sometimes years after death), as well as how living individuals experienced violence, disease, and body modifications, among other things. The bone labret pictured points to the ways in which the Maya modified their bodies. Unearthed from a grave at a site called Guijarral, its placement—near the head of the male interred within—suggests this individual wore the flower-shaped ornament as a piercing while alive.
For more detailed discussions, see my writings about child sacrifice, body partibility, and cranial shaping. In a recent publication in the volume Mesoamerican Osteobiographies, I discuss how the burials of Maya youths, which often contain poorly preserved skeletal data, reveal details about mourning, as well as broader cultural beliefs related to soul recycling and age-fluid ancestors.
Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection | For more than a decade, I conducted a biohistoric study of archival documents associated with and skulls included in the Morton Collection (though my interactions with the collection began far earlier—when I was an undergraduate majoring in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania where it is housed). In contrast to the collection’s skulls, Morton’s remains lay undisturbed in his grave at Philadelphia’s Laurel Hill Cemetery. The Morton family plot is pictured above. This unequal treatment of dead bodies and their connections to living descendant communities compelled me to deliberate about the ethics of studying human remains. Discussion of these aspects of my research can be found in varied forums: my new book Becoming Object: The Sociopolitics of the Samuel George Morton Cranial Collection, journals (e.g., American Journal of Biological Anthropology, Historical Archaeology), and interviews (e.g., Science, Seminole Tribune, Flamingo Magazine).
COURSES
Bioarchaeology | Bioarchaeologists follow two general rules. First, they contextualize human remains in physical space, cultural milieu, and (pre)historical time. Second, they regard bodies as phenomena that are the complex outcome of evolutionary, biological, and cultural forces. With these two ideas in hand, this seminar explores bioarchaeology’s history, major topical concerns, and debates. Students also engage critically with categories of and assumptions about race, sex, age, ethnicity, disease & disability, violence, and death. Woven throughout the semester are conversations about ethics and the discipline’s relevance to contemporary sociopolitics. A syllabus used in past semesters can be found here and will be updated when the course is offered in spring 2026.
Dead Bodies & Bioethics | In this seminar, students learn about the bioethical concerns raised by dead bodies. Among the topics considered are interment and mourning, exhumation, bodily fragmentation, commercialization, collection, memorialization, public display, violence, and aestheticization. The course primarily uses an anthropological approach but also draws from the fields of medicine, philosophy, law, history, and literature. Here you can find the most recent syllabus (from fall 2023) and the playlist that students have added to over the years.
Interpreting Bodies | Bodies communicate intriguing and significant ideas about societies and the individuals that comprise them. In this seminar, students read key theories about the body that are grounded with examples from anthropology, science & technology studies, art, feminist and queer studies, philosophy, history, and medicine. One theme woven throughout the semester is entanglement—of body & mind, nature & culture, human & non-human. What do these entanglements tell us about social control, gender ideology, embodied experiences, and understandings of reality? The syllabus used in fall 2021 is here and will be updated when the course is offered in spring 2026.
Anatomical Advisory Committee (AAC) | I have the privilege of serving on the AAC with colleagues from diverse fields. The AAC provides ethical oversight, watchfulness, and guidance of the Willed Body Program for the South Florida Office of the Anatomical Board (SOFAB) at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. AAC members also participate in Rose Ceremonies, memorial services that honors donors’ contribution to the education of future physicians and physical therapists. The photo below is an example of the ceremony I was honored to speak at.
Following the completion of medical studies, donors’ bodies are cremated. Families may opt to have cremated remains returned to them or sent to an alternative location. Or families may choose to have the Willed Body Program take responsibility for handling final disposition. Typically, this involves a Donor Ocean Ceremony (DOC). Pictured below are my colleagues Dr. Thomas Champney, coordinator of the Willed Body Program, and its Program Manager, Evelyn Vargas, performing a DOC (with me behind the camera as photographer).
