Chancellor's Distinguished Lectureship Series

Fall 2009
October 26, 2009

3:00 p.m. at the Dalton J. Woods Auditorium at ECE

Jane E. Buikstra

Jane E. Buikstra is Regents' Professor of Bioarchaeology and Director of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research at Arizona State University. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She received the T. Dale Stewart Award from the Physical Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American Association of Physical Anthropologists’ Charles Darwin Lifetime Achievement Award. She received her Ph.D in Physical Anthropology at the University of Chicago.

In her presentation titled “Tombs of the Ancestors: An Interdisciplinary Approach” she uses a series of four case studies to explore the manner in which bioarchaeological research enhances our knowledge of ancient Americans.

The first two examples are contextualized in the South-Central Andes, where she considers the manner in which diet, gender, and political relationships are interpreted through the study of tombs and their contents. Secondly, she explores host-pathogen relationships for infectious disease (ancient American tuberculosis), as revealed through skeletal changes and molecular biology. Thirdly, she considers the life history of the founder of the Classic Period Copán (Honduras) dynasty, which included bouts of remarkable violence, which he survived.  A second, related subject explores the manner in which biochemical analyses inform our study of the political forces that influenced the founding of the ancient Maya Classic dynasty at Copán.

Finally, she illustrates the way in which new methods resolve the persistent controversy that surrounds the identity of the remains entombed in the Temple of the Inscriptions at the site of the Palenque (Chiapas), attributed to the influential dynastic ruler, Hanab Pakal.