Dr. Kles will discuss her examination of skeletons from both the past and the present, touching on not only what we can tell from the skeletal remains themselves, but also what we can tell from how they were buried (or disposed of).*  From matriarchal societies of the past to modern-day murders, the human skeleton and the place it was found tell us not only about the person, but also the society and the person's status or relationship to that society.

* This presentation will show images of human skeletal remains. No images are Native Americans.

Dr. Kles, a native Floridian, earned her degree in Anthropology from the University of Florida. Her primary focus was forensic anthropology and bioarchaeology.  Her dissertation research focused on evaluating biological relationships as expressed in cranial remains in comparison to archaeological cultures to evaluate relationships and gene flow patterns.  Maranda was also a death investigator and an autopsy technician. She taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Florida; she is now the Vice President of Archaeological Consultants, Inc.  She brings her varied education and experience to the analysis of human remains in both forensic and archaeological contexts.