Which are you?
Don't forget, you can always...
Karina's background gives her research on skeletal taphonomy and burial archaeology a unique approach and motivation.
“As a Peruvian citizen, I am particularly interested in Pre-Columbian Andean cultures. They did not have a writing system as Western civilization understands it, though the Incas, for example, did possess a recording system by means of knotted strings. Most of what we know about these cultures comes from archaeological research and Spanish writings at the time of contact. Studying past human remains, mainly in a funerary context, allows us to retrieve these long lost cultures and opens up a window into the cultural and biological richness of humanity”.
Karina's early interest led her to a BA in Anthropology and Theatre Arts from the University of Texas at El Paso in 1998, followed by an MA in Anthropology at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor in 2000. Rounding-off her qualifications and furthering her academic path, Karina moved to Université Bordeaux I, France, where she received a PhD in Biological Anthropology in 2007.
Karina has served as Lecturer in Biological Anthropology since joining BU at the end of 2009, and her passion for teaching continues to shine through.
“The study of skeletal taphonomy and decomposition facilitates the interpretation of mortuary contexts, allowing us to distinguish between natural post-depositional processes and intentional human intervention. The funerary rite can provide insights into past societies' culture and lifestyle, and their skeletal remains give us information on their health, diet, lifestyle and even appearance”.
However, Karina's motivation has been tested in difficult circumstances in the field. “I have excavated in places such as the Chihuahua desert in the USA where it was insufferably hot and dry”. Indeed, she even admits to her patience being tested while camping in Ancash, in the highlands of her native Peru, “where temperatures dropped to below freezing overnight”. Unsurprisingly, she names these as the biggest challenges she has faced in her career.
Such experiences have not deterred her drive to investigate past cultures. The best thing about her job? “Being out in the field. The worst day in the field always beats the best day in the office”. She continues “I also love the fact you never know exactly what you are going to find. I once excavated for 2 weeks the foundations of a wall because the team's PI was convinced it was a tomb. He was wrong. On the bright side, the wall did not topple over me and after those 2 weeks I ended up uncovering a collective grave that held over 70 individuals in another part of the site.”
Somewhat philosophical when considering her biggest career achievement, Karina believes “it's still out there waiting for me”.
From Karina's perspective, “one of the most important issues around the study of human remains, past or present, is ethics”. She believes it is imperative that critical debates are regularly engaged to tackle the essential questions for the sake of advancing science and our understanding of human nature - “should human remains be buried or not?”, “is it fair that past colonial powers should be able to keep human remains that were acquired historically in “questionable” terms?”. The implications and answers of such questions are significant, and she thinks researchers should push for an “open debate”.
On a more personal note, Karina considers her favourite pastimes as “spending time with my family and taking my children out”, and she admits to feeling lucky that Bournemouth and the south of England offers them plenty to see.
A full bibliography of Karina's research is available on BURO (Bournemouth University Research Online).
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