Dr. Sofía Pacheco-Fores, a bioarchaeologist at the University of Minnesota, specializes in understanding ancient migration in Mexico. In a captivating discussion, she delves into how biogeochemical methods reveal insights about migrant identities and experiences. Sofía defines identity-based violence and illustrates how migrants faced challenges during the Epiclassic political upheaval. She reveals that many non-locals lived in central Mexico prior to their deaths and shares her ongoing research projects in Oaxaca and other regions, all while sprinkling in her love for cooking tamales.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Childhood Roadtrips Sparked A Career
Sofía Pacheco-Fores grew up visiting archaeological sites in Mexico City and decided at age seven to become an archaeologist.
That childhood exposure shaped her career path into bioarchaeology and studying past lives through remains.
question_answer ANECDOTE
A Ritual Island With Many Skulls
Non-Grid 4 is an Epiclassic ritual platform on an island with incense, offerings, obsidian blades, and at least 180 skulls recovered.
Cut marks indicate throat slitting and decapitation consistent with ritualized bloodletting linked to rain and fertility rites.
insights INSIGHT
Identity-Based Violence Rises With Instability
Identity-based violence targets people for who they are, not what they did, and rises during political instability.
Pacheco-Fores tested whether migrants were selectively targeted in Epiclassic central Mexico.
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Dr. Sofía Pacheco-Fores is a bioarchaeologist whose research focuses on migration in ancient Mexico. Using a range of methods including archaeological biogeochemistry and phenotypic variation in human skeletal and dental morphology, she reconstructs migration patterns to understand the experiences of past migrants and their recipient communities. She examines the role migration played in social and cultural change, including in ancient state formation, the spread of novel material culture complexes, the expression of social inequality, and eruptions of mass violence. She has on-going collaborative research projects in central Mexico, Oaxaca, and northwestern Mexico.
In addition to her research, Dr. Pacheco-Fores is involved in science education and outreach activities with the goal of fostering increased inclusion and diversity within anthropology. She is a Senior Editor at Anthro Illustrated, a collaborative project creating illustrations of anthropologists of diverse backgrounds at work. She also encourages increased representation and participation in anthropology through the Skype A Scientist program, speaking with bilingual K-12 students about anthropology and bioarchaeology.
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Find the paper discussed in this episode:
SI Pacheco-Fores, CT Morehart. 2024. Beyond “non-local”: biogeochemical and morphological approaches to examining diverse migrant experiences in Epiclassic central Mexico. Bioarchaeology International 8:104-122. https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2022.0038
SI Pacheco-Fores, CT Morehart, JE Buikstra, GW Gordon, KJ Knudson. 2021. Migration, violence, and the “other”: a biogeochemical approach to identity-based violence in the Epiclassic Basin of Mexico. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 61: 101263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101263
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Contact Dr. Azcorra-Pérez: sipf@umn.edu
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