The bone woman : a forensic anthropologist's search for truth in the mass graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published
New York : Random House, [2004].
ISBN
1400060648, 0812968859
Status

Description

In the spring of 1994, Rwanda was the scene of the first acts since World War II to be legally defined as genocide. Two years later, Clea Koff, a twenty-three-year-old forensic anthropologist analyzing prehistoric skeletons in the safe confines of Berkeley, California, was one of sixteen scientists chosen by the UN International Criminal Tribunal to go to Rwanda to unearth the physical evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Bone Woman is Koff’s riveting, deeply personal account of that mission and the six subsequent missions she undertook—to Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo—on behalf of the UN.In order to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity, the UN needs to know the answer to one question: Are the bodies those of noncombatants? To answer this, one must learn who the victims were, and how they were killed. Only one group of specialists in the world can make both those determinations: forensic anthropologists, trained to identify otherwise unidentifiable human remains by analyzing their skeletons. Forensic anthropologists unlock the stories of people’s lives, as well as of their last moments.Koff’s unflinching account of her years with the UN—what she saw, how it affected her, who was prosecuted based on evidence she found, what she learned about the world—is alternately gripping, frightening, and miraculously hopeful. Readers join Koff as she comes face-to-face with the realities of genocide: nearly five hundred bodies exhumed from a single grave in Kibuye, Rwanda; the wire-bound wrists of Srebrenica massacre victims uncovered in Bosnia; the disinterment of the body of a young man in southwestern Kosovo as his grandfather looks on in silence.Yet even as she recounts the hellish working conditions, the tangled bureaucracy of the UN, and the heartbreak of survivors, Koff imbues her story with purpose, humanity, and an unfailing sense of justice. This is a book only Clea Koff could have written, charting her journey from wide-eyed innocent to soul-weary veteran across geography synonymous with some of the worst crimes of the twentieth century. A tale of science in the service of human rights, The Bone Woman is, even more profoundly, a story of hope and enduring moral principles.

Copies

LocationCall NumberStatus
Glenwood-Lynwood Public Library District - Stacks599.9 KOFOn Shelf
Prairie Trails Public Library District - Stacks599.9 KOFOn Shelf
Riverside Public Library - Stacks614.1 KOFOn Shelf
Roselle Public Library District - Adult Nonfiction599.9 KOFOn Shelf

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More Details

Published
New York : Random House, [2004].
Format
Book
Physical Desc
x, 271 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Language
English
ISBN
1400060648, 0812968859
Accelerated Reader
UG
Level 8.8, 17 Points

Notes

General Note
Paperback printing has publisher name as Random House Trade Paperbacks.
Study Program Information
Accelerated Reader AR UG 8.8 17 113521.

Published Reviews

Booklist Review

Any title containing the words mass graves portends some tough reading, and Koff's unblinking, direct memoir is not lacking in ghastliness. One of her aims, however, is to contrast her interior reactions to her work of exhuming and examining the victims of the Balkan and Rwandan massacres of the early 1990s with the meticulous professionalism needed to conduct it. Koff's observation that when I analyze human remains I am interested, not repulsed is shown in her objective descriptive writing about particular victims' physical characteristics and traumas. Away from the grave or autopsy table, however, Koff allows glimpses of the mental effort her professionalism requires by relating her numerous nightmares and manifestations of stress. She accepts this burden out of a deeply idealistic motivation--her hope that her career in forensic anthropology will reduce human rights violations in the world. Koff also writes about incidents of her field experiences such as privations, the dangers of gunfire and mines, and the interpersonal relations with her colleagues and UN guards. --Gilbert Taylor Copyright 2004 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
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Library Journal Review

In 1996, at age 23, Koff went from graduate school in forensic anthropology to forensic investigative work in Kibuye, Rwanda, as part of a team sent by the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) following the genocide. She participated in six other missions, recovering bodies following mass murders in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. This is a first-person account of her experiences. When the women of Vukovar, Croatia, resisted having bodies exhumed because they wanted to find their relatives alive, the author was forced to question the true value of her work. But she realized that the evidence revealed the commission of a terrible crime against humanity and came to accept that forensic analysis would allow the victims to incriminate their killers and history to be written as accurately as possible. This is a brave book, presented in a clear voice by a scientist who is confident that her missions will get to the truth and yet human enough to cry at the horror of it all. For history, anthropology, and women's studies collections.-Joan W. Gartland, Detroit P.L. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Koff, C. (2004). The bone woman: a forensic anthropologist's search for truth in the mass graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo (First edition.). Random House.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Koff, Clea. 2004. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. New York: Random House.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Koff, Clea. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo New York: Random House, 2004.

Harvard Citation (style guide)

Koff, C. (2004). The bone woman: a forensic anthropologist's search for truth in the mass graves of rwanda, bosnia, croatia, and kosovo. First edn. New York: Random House.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Koff, Clea. The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo First edition., Random House, 2004.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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