The Bone Woman: A Forensic Anthropologist's Search for Truth in the Mass Graves of Rwanda, Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo

Though this was published in 2004, this memoir looks back at Koff's work as a budding forensic anthropologist going out on her first major assignments in the mid to late 90s (the last bit of the book ends around 2000) and how these first jobs affected and molded her not only professionally, but as a person. I personally found this memoir fascinating. Not only is the work she does grim but interesting, but Koff herself comes from a unique background -- born in England, Koff comes from an American father with Polish-Russian heritage and an English-raised Tansanian mother (with 1/2 her family being from Uganda). As Koff puts it, "instead of national identity, we had strong family identity." This background influences Koff some emotionally when she takes her first job working for the UN to investigate mass graves of victims of the genocide in Rwanda. She quickly learns that many of the victims came from multiple backgrounds within one family tree and were often killed for it during the months of the genocide.Koff first visits the mass graves in Rwanda in 1994, and again in 1996. Through her investigations and information that became available in the months and years after the genocide, it's learned that in less than four months, 800,000 people were murdered, most by blunt force trauma. In Kibuye (just one county in Rwanda) alone, 250,000 were killed in just three months, and over 100,000 children were left orphaned. IN MONTHS. One thing that Koff says she quickly picks up on and something she is really moved by is the clearly indomitable spirit of the people of Rwanda. Despite these horrors these families had to survive, she still found a community full of warm and friendly people who (maybe not always, but oftentimes) welcomed her into their homes and their lives. This maybe plays a part in her experiencing what she describes as occupational "double vision" -- where her professional distance with a skeleton was temporarily lost and she would get a strong vision of what the person might have been like / looked like as a living, breathing human being. As you might imagine, this can make your work extraordinarily difficult when processing mass graves every day if this happens multiple times a day, trying to document that many remains!The memoir goes on to also share her experiences working in mass graves (victims of war crimes) in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. The book is divided into sections by country and the beginning of each section includes a paragraph & map of the area briefly explaining the political situation at the time that led to the mass graves she ends up excavating. I thought this was a helpful touch for those who either don't remember all the historical facts of the time or have yet to learn them.It's here that she illustrates cracks in the UN's systems of protection for their workers out in the field: she shares a story of how a security team was sent out in an armoured Land Rover that could withstand bullets but didn't come with doors that lock!The accounts of her work in Bosnia I found especially saddening. Koff discusses how she is struck by the tragedy that bodies were being identified by family members recognizing their stitching patterns on the clothes (As Koff explains, during the war many citizens were left too poor to buy new clothes so old clothes were stitched together multiple times -- mothers, wives, daughters, etc were coming to grave sites and recognizing stitches on clothes. That's how they ended up identifying many). The grave sites ran so large sometimes that they actually had to be divided up into quadrants! But the story that struck me the most was regarding the body of a boy Koff discovers who still had marbles in his pocket. That's how young the victim was. That story just crushed me when I read that.I think I can safely say, this book won't be for everyone. I for one though found her story fascinating and moving. Tragic, yes, but important work. Her job enables her to give surviving family members a sense of closure they maybe could not get otherwise. And like she said, her work also forces the killers to be held accountable. This memoir also makes the reader contemplate just how badly people can treat each other and how that has to change. But it won't change unless we face what's happened in the past. That's why I find this book an important read for those brave enough to delve into it.

I was surprised to read such negative reviews for a book that I dearly love and have bought twice (after one copy was loaned and not returned). Maybe it's just an anthropology thing. As an anthro grad student who wants to work in the same types of situation that Ms. Koff describes, her book gives insight into her experiences.This is not a technical book, in fact it reads more like a memoir. So don't expect detailed excavation information, that's not what this book is. And Ms. Koff is young when she goes on these digs (she is just out of her bachelors when she travels to Rwanda). For those who may not know anything about anthropology, this is a big deal. People without a masters degree or with little field experience aren't usually part of these recovery efforts. Ms. Koff was lucky and competent enough to have worked with good professors who had connections and helped her to get on the UN mission. This is not to say she isn't a good scientist, she is, but as many in the field (and in life) know, half the battle is knowing the right person.Some people seemed to want to see some strong emotional responses by Ms. Koff, and I can understand for most people excavating a mass grave in Rwanda would be horribly traumatic. But this is why some people do this work and others don't. You wouldn't expect a doctor or a firegfighter or a soldier to be so wrapped up in the emotion of the moment that they can't focus and get the job done. She is affected, she discusses what she is seeing, imagines what would she do if something as awful as genocide happened to her, how would she save her mother who suffers from some physical limitations making a quick escape impossible. These are the reactions of a forensic anthropologist who has worked on two long and difficult mass recovery missions.There is a place for intense sorrow and grief. The book by the head of the UN security mission (his name escapes me) who worked tirelessly and with little resources to save people during the killing in Rwanda is a good example.Ms. Koff's efforts begin several years after the killings ended. She is an anthropologist who knew what she was getting into and wanted to take on this difficult task to give something of the lost back to their loved ones. This is what a forensic anthropologist does. Becoming overwhelmed by her experiences does a disservice to the same people she is trying to help. She is affected, she feels the responsibility of the mission and her actions and the loss of lives keenly, but she sucks it up and gets the job done. If the Rwandans and Kosovars can bear their losses and continue on, the least she can do is what is expected of her and help them recover their relatives. And this is what she does.She's competent,confident, but young and you can see the issues that occur when a small group of people are doing dangerous and emotionally wrenching work. This book is a must for anthropology students, especially those wanting to work in mass disaster and human rights situations.

I can't imagine so such a young person, in this case, Clea Koff could professionnally embrace and thrive on a "unglamorous" forensic anthopologist career. Her descriptions, "saw-off", brushing...of the human bones through decomposed bodies to obtain evidence, to convey to authorities the alleged perpetrators showed me how much love she has for the human kind in general and for the families'survivors in particular. Clea, though encountered a handful of all kinds of "difficulties" with her work sites, her colleagues and certainly with herself, came out on top achieving her goals. Sacrificing herself by getting out of her comfort zone, the USA, at 23 years of age to seek justice for the defenseless and to bring hope to all of us that even the dead deserve a commanding voice. "Truth does not bring back the death. Truth allows their voices to be heard."

This book is good for grasping what it's like to uncover mass graves resulting from genocide and war. This book was used in my graduate course for Forensic Anthropology but I would have read it in leisure as well!

Definitely a book I had to read for class. Would not read on my own. Very long and drawn out

I really wanted to know more about the actual bones that were found but it was more about the author's experience which wasn't what I wanted

Gruelling account of Clea's time in Rwanda, but does not sensationalize what happened there. An excellent book

Interesting subject matter. However slightly off-putting is the complaints about the management of the teams on digs.

good book

Thanks!!!