Affiliated Departments & Programs

Kimmarie Murphy, professor of anthropology, joined the faculty at Kenyon in 2004. She holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the State University of New York in Plattsburgh and a Ph.D. in biological anthropology from Indiana University. Trained as a biocultural anthropologist, she is interested in understanding contemporary patterns of health and nutrition as a way of interpreting diet and disease in the past. Her research focuses on human osteology with an emphasis on paleopathology and stable isotope analysis.

Murphy has worked in southern Africa, North America and Europe looking at health and diet in past populations. Murphy has also worked with students on the importance of local foods in people’s diets, specifically foods obtained at venues such as local farmers’ markets. Most recently she has begun working in Iceland as a Senior Specialist for the Skagafjordur Church and Settlement Survey (SCASS). SCASS is a multi-year project in Northern Iceland to understand the formation of social stratification and property rights during the Viking Age and after (AD 874-1700). The project is funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the Icelandic Government.

Areas of Expertise

Diet and health, human osteology, paleopathology/epidemiology, human evolution, disease ecology, human adaptation, Stable Isotope Analysis, Icelandic archaeology, African archaeology

Education

1996 — Doctor of Philosophy from Indiana Univ Bloomington

1993 — Master of Arts from Indiana Univ Bloomington

1989 — Bachelor of Arts from Suny Coll Plattsburgh

Courses Recently Taught

Biological anthropology studies the biological diversity of our species and the evolutionary history that has led us to our present condition. The course includes (1) examination of the genetics underlying evolution and the mechanisms by which change occurs; (2) variation and adaptation among living humans; (3) living primate populations as keys to understanding our evolutionary past; and (4) human evolution. This course is designed to expose students to the breadth of biological anthropology and to prepare them for upper-level classes in anthropology and related disciplines. This foundation course is required for upper-level work in biological anthropology courses. No prerequisite. Enrollment is limited to first-year students and sophomores. Offered every semester.

This course investigates the central role food plays in human biology and culture. We explore food from an evolutionary perspective, examining nutritional variations in subsistence strategies ranging from foraging to industrial societies. Students come to understand that food is a cultural construction as we look at the symbolism and utilization of food from a cross-cultural perspective. Finally, utilizing a biocultural perspective, we combine our understanding of biology and culture to see the effects of social, political and economic issues on human nutrition. Nutritional anthropology uses a variety of methods, ranging from ethnographic techniques to methods in biological anthropology for assessing the effect of nutrition on human biology. Throughout the semester, students become familiar with nutritional anthropology's varied approaches. This counts toward the upper-level biological or cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111, 112 or 113. Offered every year.

This course focuses on the application of human skeletal and morphological data to various interpretive problems (descriptive, comparative and analytic) in biological anthropology. Topics include basic human skeletal and dental anatomy; determination of age, sex and stature; developmental and pathological anomalies; osteometric methods and techniques; various comparative statistical methods; and problems of ethics, excavation, restoration and preservation. The course also includes an examination of representative research studies that utilize the above data and methods. This counts toward the upper-level biological anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111. Offered every other year.

Medical anthropology is an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the influences of both biology and culture on the human experience of disease. This course introduces students to the anthropological study of disease ecology and medical systems in other cultures. We explore the role of disease in humans from an evolutionary perspective, noting the influence that culture, ecology, economy, history and politics have had in the past as well as the present. In addition, we look at the efficacy and nature of both non-Western and Western ethnomedical systems and the cultural and psychodynamic features of illness. Throughout this course, we examine the application of a medical anthropological perspective in developing sensitivity for cultural and biological variation within the United States and abroad. This counts toward the upper-level biological or cultural anthropology requirement for the major. Prerequisite: ANTH 111 or 113. Offered occasionally.

The department reserves individual study for those students who are unusually motivated in an area of the field and who we believe are responsible enough to handle the challenge of working independently. Such courses might be research-oriented (e.g., students returning from off-campus study programs with data) but are more commonly reading-oriented courses allowing students to explore in greater depth topics that interest them or that overlap with their major course of study. To arrange for individual study, a student must consult with a faculty member during the semester before the independent work is to be undertaken. The individual-study course may be designed exclusively by the faculty member or it may be designed in consultation with the student. For reading courses, a bibliography is created and the student reads those works, meeting periodically (weekly or bi-weekly) with the faculty member to discuss them. Faculty directing the individual study will set the terms of course evaluation, which typically involve either a research paper or an extensive annotated bibliography with a short explanatory essay tying the entries together and situating the debates that they represent. Another option is for the student to write one- to two-page assessments of each book or reading at intervals throughout the semester. The faculty member comments on these assessments and may request periodic reassessments. The course culminates with a synthetic paper that pulls together all the readings. Because students must enroll for individual studies by the end of the seventh class day of each semester, they are expected to begin discussion of the proposed individual study preferably the semester before, so that there is time to devise the proposal and seek the departmental approval before the established deadline. This course counts toward the major or minor.