I am a biological anthropologist specializing in human osteology as a way to study social behavior and politics in the past.  To this end, I approach the body as both a living organism and a cultural symbol.  On the biological side, I am especially interested in skeletal injury patterns as indicators of social conflict and violence.  On the cultural side, I focus on how skeletal evidence is deployed in a political arena to shape social identities and to influence the construction of historical narratives. 

I have analyzed skeletal remains from prehistoric, historic, and forensic settings in Jordan, England, Croatia, Guatemala, and the United States.  In my dissertation research (1997-99), I developed a method for identifying gender violence in the archaeological record based on the patterning of traumatic lesions on the skeleton.  Since this time, my research has focused two infamous events in nineteenth-century America:  the Mountain Meadows massacre and the ordeal of the Donner Party.

In 1857, some 120 men, women, and children were massacred by a local militia at Mountain Meadows, Utah.  My analysis of human remains from the massacre has led to a more comprehensive study of oral and written traditions in both Utah and Arkansas.  I have just completed a book entitled House of Mourning: A Biocultural History of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.  Here I integrate the skeletal findings with documentary evidence to shed light on the social and political significance of this event in American cultural history. 

 

 

 

Selected Publications