Melissa S. Murphy
Department of Anthropology
Professor & Department Head
Melissa S. Murphy joined the faculty in 2008. She is a biological anthropologist specializing
in bioarchaeology and committed to multidisciplinary approaches within anthropology.
Much of Murphy’s research has focused on the effects of imperialism and colonialism
in prehispanic and colonial Peru, but she has also conducted fieldwork and research
in Mexico, Kazakhstan, Israel, and France. She recently established the Bioarchaeology
and Stable Isotope Laboratory (BaSIL) in her lab where she and her students conduct
research on human skeletal remains and prepare samples for stable isotope analysis
in collaboration with the University of Wyoming’s Stable Isotope Facility.
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.
Courses Taught:
ANTH 1100 Introduction to Biological Anthropology
ANTH 4140 Archaeological Field School in Peru
ANTH 4210/5210 Human Osteology
ANTH 4230/5230 Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 4240/5240 Forensic Anthropology Lab
ANTH 4255/5255 Bioarchaeology
ANTH 4260/5260 Anthropology of Food, Culture, and Nutrition
ANTH 5020 Biological Anthropology
Recent Publications
(2018) Murphy, M.S. Colonial bioarchaeology and demography. Oxford Handbook of the
Inca, edited by S. Alconini and R.A. Covey. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2017) Haas, R., I. Stefanescu, A. Garcia-Putnam, M.A. Aldenderfer, M. Clementz, M.S. Murphy, C. Viviano Lllave, and J. Watson. Hunter-gatherers permanently occupied the Andean Altiplano by at least 7kya. Royal Society Open Science 4: 170331
(2017) Murphy, M.S. and H. Klaus (editors). 2017. Colonized Bodies, Lives Transformed. Towards a Global Bioarchaeology of Contact and Colonialism. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
(2017) Murphy, M.S. and H. Klaus. Colonized bodies, colonizing bodies. New perspectives on the bioarchaeology of contact, conquest, and colonialism. Colonized Bodies, Lives Transformed. Towards a Global Bioarchaeology of Contact and Colonialism, edited by M.S. Murphy and H. Klaus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
(2017) Murphy, M.S., Boza, M.F. and C. Gaither. Exhuming differences and continuities: The interpretation of shifting and aberrant mortuary patterns after contact and colonialism. Colonized Bodies, Lives Transformed. Towards a Global Bioarchaeology of Contact and Colonialism, edited by M.S. Murphy and H. Klaus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
(2017) Ortiz, A., M.S. Murphy, J. Toohey, and C. Gaither. Hybridity? Change? Continuity? Survival? A study of biodistance and identity of colonial burials from Magdalena de Cao Viejo, Chicama Valley, Peru. Colonized Bodies, Lives Transformed. Towards a Global Bioarchaeology of Contact and Colonialism, edited by M.S. Murphy and H. Klaus. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
(2016) Murphy, M.S. and M.F. Boza. Convertiendo a los vivos, disputando a los muertos: Evangelización, identidad y los ancestros. Arqueología Histórica en el Perú. Segunda Parte, edited by A. Traslaviña, Z. Chase, P. Van Valkenburgh and B. Weaver. Lima. Boletín de Arqueología PUCP 20
(2016) Toohey, J., B. Geddes, B., M.S. Murphy, C. Pereyra Iturry, and J. Bouroncle Castro. 2016. Theorizing Residential Burial: An Understudied Mortuary Treatment in the Central Andes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 43:29-38.
(2014) Murphy, M.S., B. Spatola, R. Weathermon. Allies today, enemies tomorrow. A comparative analysis of perimortem injuries along the biomechanical continuum. Bioarchaeology and Forensic Case Studies of Sectarian Violence, Revolts, and Small-Scale Warfare: Reconstructing and Explaining Complex Human Behavior, edited by D. Martin and C. Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2013) Williams, J.S. and M.S. Murphy. Living and Dying as Subjects of the Inca Empire: Diet and Health at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 32: 165-179.
(2012) Murphy, M.S. and M.F. Boza. A bioarchaeological study of coca leaf chewing Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. Andean Past, 10:171-193.
(2012) Gaither, C., M.S. Murphy. Consequences of Conquest? Subadult trauma at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(2): 467-478.
(2011) 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.
(2011) 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.
(2011) 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.
(2011) 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.
(2010) Murphy, M.S., C. Gaither, E. Goycochea, J. Verano, G. Cock. 2010 Violence and weapon-related trauma at Puruchuco-Huaquerones, Peru. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 142 (4): 636-650 pdf
Research Interests:
Bioarchaeology; Andean archaeology; Tarascan archaeology; Purépecha biohistory; historical
bioarchaeology; contact, conquest, and colonialism; paleopathology; paleodemography;
mortuary practices; anthropology of death and dying; theory and methods in bioarchaeology;
stable isotope analysis.
