Personally Speaking: Sara Juengst, Ph.D.
“It’s In Our Bones: A Biological Microhistory of Identity and Community in Ancient Bolivia”
How can burials and skeletons teach us about the lives of past people and how their societies shifted in the face of environmental, social, and economic change? Using research from Cooperation and Hierarchy in Ancient Bolivia: Building Community with the Body, Sara Juengst, Ph.D. discusses how ancient Bolivians organized their communities through several notable sociocultural and environmental changes, as reflected through disease, diet, and trauma on human skeletal remains. The bio-cultural process of embodied culture can help us understand how, when, and why past peoples made choices to restructure society, invest in hierarchy, and/or challenge authority. And these critical moments of community building show the incredible power of human innovation and social flexibility. Additionally, imagining past worlds helps us to conceive of potential futures, bringing ancient choices about power into the modern day.
Sara Juengst, Ph.D., is an associate professor of Anthropology at UNC Charlotte and specializes in bioarchaeology and mortuary archaeology. She has worked on (bio)archaeological projects in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Kenya, Nigeria, and North Carolina and is broadly interested in past peoples’ lived experiences of power and social organization as they are reflected through skeletal evidence of disease, trauma, diet, and identity. She has also worked with cemetery preservation groups in the Charlotte area since 2022, with a particular focus on documenting and researching African American cemeteries and burial grounds.
Additional Research
The author welcomes questions and comments about the topic and, although it is not necessary to read anything before the event, we refer you to additional research for more in-depth coverage:
Book
Sara L. Juengst, Cooperation and Hierarchy in Ancient Bolivia: Building Community with the Body (Routledge, 2024).
Journal Articles
Juengst, S.L., Rowe, S.R., Duke, G., Stumpf, M., Bowers, M., & Cruz, Y.Z. (2025) An Enigmatic Manteño Burial from Buen Suceso, Ecuador, AD 771–953. Latin American Antiquity. DOI: 10.1017/laq.2024.20
Juengst, S.L., Lunniss, R., Cruz, Y.Z., Cobb, E., & Bythell, A. (2024) An Investigation of Identity and Ontology at Salango, Ecuador (BCE 100–300 CE): Combining paleopathological, mortuary, and stable isotopic analyses. Bioarchaeology International 8(1-2): 23-44 DOI: 10.5744/bi.2023.0010
Event Facts, Parking and Accessibility
“It’s In Our Bones: A Biological Microhistory of Identity and Community in Ancient Bolivia,”
featuring research by Sara Juengst, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Anthropology
Date: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Time: 5:15 p.m., with a light reception at 4:15 p.m.
Location: J. Murrey Atkins Library, Halton Room
9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC 28223
Please note the event is on Wednesday in 2025-2026
Open to the public at no charge
Parking: pats.charlotte.edu; The two closest parking locations are the Cone Deck and the Union Deck adjacent to the Popp Martin Student Union. (Look for arrows on the map.) Please read about the library’s accessibility support and contact chess-events@charlotte.edu if you have an accessibility issue directly related to Personally Speaking.
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Now in its 16th Season, the Personally Speaking published-expert series highlights the recent research findings of our talented faculty. Presenters have each been selected by a committee of their peers to represent a sampling of the broad interdisciplinary work being conducted within the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences. Presenters also have a knack for sharing their personal inspirations in a way that thoroughly engages their audiences—who are invited to reciprocate after the presentation. In this way, the College aims to build new connections between our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and members of the Charlotte community. The series is a partnership of the College of Humanities & Earth and Social Sciences with J. Murrey Atkins Library. Presentations may be recorded, but are usually not livestreamed.
