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For Immediate Release

Written by: Laurel Alberson, 260-481-6166

Media contact: Richard Sutter, 260-481-6676

Studying the Past Leads to Future Publication for IPFW Students

(Fort Wayne, May 15, 2008) -- After a year of studying Peruvian human remains, what more could two Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) students have to look forward to? Turning their results into a publication of course.

Sara Miller and Christian McPherson, under the guidance of Associate Professor of Anthropology Richard Sutter, spent the past two semesters studying the biological relations among prehistoric Peruvian human remains housed at The Field Museum in Chicago. They recently presented posters on the topic at the 36th Annual Midwest Conference on Andean and Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory.

So why were Miller, McPherson, and Sutter interested in this topic? "We chose specific human skeletal collections housed at The Field Museum because the regions they are from are woefully understudied and archaeologically poorly understood," said Sutter.

The students presented posters at the conference after analyzing the data and writing up their results. The regional conference brought together archaeologists, biological anthropologists, and historians to present their research on the prehistoric and early historic Andes. The conference included some of the world's top Andean scholars. They hope to turn their presentation and posters into publications.

"The presentation of one's research is a critical part of any research because it emphasizes both communication skills and scientists' ethical requirements to share their research," said Sutter.

For more information, contact Richard Sutter, associate professor of anthropology, at 260-481-6676 or sutterr@ipfw.edu.

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