Melissa Murphy

Assistant Professor

B.A. 1994, Haverford College
Ph.D. 2004, University of Pennsylvania

mmurph20@uwyo.edu • (307) 766-6266 • Anthropology 208

Melissa Scott Murphy joined the Department in the fall of 2008. She is a biological anthropologist and bioarchaeologist who is committed to multidisciplinary approaches within anthropology. Although the majority of her research has been in Peru, she has worked in France, Israel, and, most recently, in Kazakhstan. Murphy directed the bioarchaeological investigations of the human remains from the cemetery of Puruchuco-Huaquerones, located on the central coast of Peru (circa A.D. 1470-1550), with a specific focus on the paleodemography, health, and mortuary contexts of the people from this community. She is currently analyzing a subset of burials that show injuries inflicted by European weapons, including the first evidence of gunshot trauma associated with Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire. Building on this research, Murphy has turned her attention to other osteological collections from the Rimac Valley. She is also participating in bioarchaeological research at Santa Maria Magdalena de Cao Viejo, an early Colonial Period church complex and town in the Chicama Valley on the North Coast of Peru.
As an educator, Murphy strives to make anthropology germane to both majors and non-majors and she integrates the other subfields of anthropology into her courses as much as possible. She teaches classes in Human Osteology, Bioarchaeology, Forensic Anthropology, and the Introduction to Biological Anthropology for graduate students.
In her spare time, Murphy spends as much time as possible outside, particularly on long distance runs.

Courses Taught:

Recent Publications

2010 Violence and Weapon-Related Trauma at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. Murphy, et al. pdf

(In press) Murphy, M.S. and M.F. Boza. A bioarchaeological study of coca leaf chewing at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. To be published in Andean Past 10.

(In press) Liebmann, Matthew L. and Melissa S. Murphy (editors), Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas. Santa Fe: SAR Press.

(In press) Liebmann, M. and M.S. Murphy. Rethinking the Archaeology of 'Rebels, Backsliders, and Idolaters' In Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas. Santa Fe: SAR Press.

(In press) Murphy, M.S. Elena Goyacochea, and Guillermo Cock. Persistence, resistance and accommodation at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. In Enduring Conquests: Rethinking the Archaeology of Resistance to Spanish Colonialism in the Americas. Santa Fe: SAR Press.

Research Interests:

Bioarchaeology, Andean archaeology, the Incas, Spanish conquest of the Inca empire, paleopathology, paleodemography, mortuary practices, Central Asian Archaeology