Sara Juengst, Ph.D., Anthropology, UNC Charlotte
The experiences of death and dying are both universal in that they are experienced by all humans and intensely personal in how they are experienced and commemorated. The study of human skeletons and burial locations is used in forensic science, anthropology, and social studies more broadly for a variety of purposes, including missing persons and criminal investigations, investigations of past and present cultural traditions, and understanding personal and regional history. In this seminar, we will explore the universal human experience of death and dying from multiple perspectives, including theory and methods from philosophy, biology, forensic anthropology, and archaeology. We will discuss how the human skeleton records experiences of life and death (such as aging, childbirth, disease, trauma, stature, diet, and others) and how humans commemorate death through burial ritual, memorials, and formal cemeteries. This will involve forensic lab demos (human bone identification, age and sex estimation, trauma interpretation), potential visits to local cemeteries, case studies of mortuary traditions in past societies (with a particular focus on Latin America), and discussion of the history and science of death and mortuary studies. We will also talk about the ethics of collecting, curating, and displaying human skeletal remains for teaching and research.
*note that this course will involve hands-on work with real human skeletal remains*
Relevant subjects: forensic anthropology, archaeology, philosophy, history, biology,
Suggested readings:
- Stiff by Mary Roach
- Still Life with Bones by Alexa Hagerty
- Social Bioarchaeology edited by Sabrina Agarwal and Bonnie Glencross
Home