Danielle Kurin has been an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara since January 2013, teaching courses for undergraduate and graduate students, conducting research, and carrying out community service.
Kurin specializes in the study of bioarchaeology, the examination and analysis of human remains to understand how people lived—and died, in the past. She works mainly in the Andes, on cultures ranging from about 500 A.D. to contemporary populations. For a bioarchaeologist, the human body and its remains, such as bones, teeth, and skulls provide a window into various aspects of life, ranging from diet, to patterns of work, labor, violence and health care. On an individual level, bioarchaeologists like Kurin can isolate various indicators of life events. Teeth, for example, provide a record of diet and health throughout one’s life. Microscopic scratches and tooth wear can indicate the types of food eaten. Teeth cavities and abscesses often indicate a diet high in sugar and carbohydrates Kurin has investigated their isotopic composition which reflect the foods eaten from infancy through old age—and the locations of those food products. That way she has been able to determine where individuals lived and how they moved around through there life. Bones may reveal stunting –a likely consequence of malnutrition or mistreatment in childhood, At a societal level, Kurin and others have excavated dozens, sometimes hundreds of skeletons at an archaeological site. By examining their features indicating gender, age, health status, broken bones, etc. Kurin can determine the types of injuries people of different status had, how they were harmed or even killed. Kurin has been able to also determine how ancient ethnic groups marked the body, by, for example, elongating the skull in infancy to produce people that were noticeably more cone-headed than their round-headed neighbors. Kurin has also studied mummification after death, finding among remains artifacts indicative of social status and ideas about the afterlife. While the term “bioarchaeology” was coined by John Grahame Douglas Clark it was popularized by Jane Ellen Buikstra, an American. Bioarchaeologist. Among the key figures in the sub-discipline was Phillip L. Walker. Walker received his PhD from the University of Chicago, taught at the University of California, Santa Barbara for 35 years and wrote more than 200 scholarly and scientific papers and reports. He worked on various bioarchaeological topics around the world and won many honors. He died suddenly in 2009. Danielle Kurin came to the University to succeed him after earning her B.A. at Bryn Mawr College and PhD at Vanderbilt University. To honor his legacy, Kurin named her lab the Phillip L Walker Bioarchaeology Lab. She worked with the Department of Anthropology and with Walker’s widow, Cynthia Brock, to have his papers donated to the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution.
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AuthorDanielle Kurin - Award-Winning Educator and Researcher. Archives
June 2023
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