There is a plethora of further subgroups under the subfield of biological anthropology that help make it a broad field of study. I believe there is a subfield in there for everyone. For this reason, I was able to find one that piqued my interest. Because of my interest in true crime stories, I decided to look at forensic anthropology, which is a subfield of biological anthropology that “involves applying skeletal analysis and techniques in archeology to solving criminal cases.” (https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/social-studies/forensic-anthropology)
There are several professional organizations for those interested in this discipline. One of them is the Society of Forensic Anthropologists (SOFA). (http://www.sofainc.org/) SOFA is primarily for professionals who work in the public sector, including medical examiners, coroners, university employees, and governmental agency employees. There are also journals for forensic anthropologists, including the Journal of Forensic Sciences. There are also many magazines, including Science Daily and The Forensic Mag. Although SOFA does not publish a journal, there are links to various documents that would be helpful to a forensic anthropologist working as a crime scene investigator, including a crime scene equipment list and a checklist to help document the investigator’s findings concerning human remains. The Smithsonian website also has an excellent library of materials concerning forensic anthropology.
Forensic anthropologists are able to tell the age, gender and features of skeletal remains and are able to provide evidence to show how long a corpse has been decomposing. The field of forensic anthropology is important because forensic anthropologists, among other things, can help solve crimes. In fact, one of the pioneers in forensic anthropology was William Ross Maples. (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/william-r-maples-popularized-forensic-anthropology-long-csi-180964317/) One of the reasons Maples was a leader in the field is because he helped solve over 1200 cases using forensic anthropology. During his career, Maples was able to help “bring that field to prominence by helping to bring justice and peace to families as well as clear up some high-profile crimes.” Some of the historic cases Maples worked on include the Russian Romanov family, Medgar Evers, Francisco Pizarro (Spanish conquistador) and President Zachary Taylor.
In 1992, Maples’ team identified the remains of some of the Romanov family in Russia. Maples’ team was able to confirm that the remains were of Czar Nicholas II, his wife and his children, except Anastasia (her possible survival continues to be quite a famous story) and Alexei. President Zachary Taylor died in 1850. His body was exhumed in 1990 to determine if he had been poisoned. Maples determined that President Taylor died of gastroenteritis, not arsenic poisoning. This was important because some people had been speculating that Taylor was killed because of his position on slavery. Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963. In 1994, Maples’ team examined evidence from the remains of Evers and was able to “help finally secure a conviction against white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for shooting Evers in his own driveway.” Forensic anthropologists contribute a lot more than people might think. They are a big part of the criminal justice system from the beginning, identifying what happened to a victim, to being expert witnesses describing their techniques and findings and helping to convict the perpetrators of these crimes.
http://www.sofainc.org/mission https://www.britannica.com/science/forensic-anthropology https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/william-r-maples-popularized-forensic-anthropology-long-csi-180964317/
https://naturalhistory.si.edu/education/teaching-resources/social-studies/forensic-anthropology
I think this is a very cool reference about the story of Anastasia that you found and tied in with forensic anthropology. The anecdotes you’ve included make the field seem very prevalent and necessary but also very “cool” because of the whole mystery solving which I think is a very cool trait of this field. The discipline seems very interesting especially with its use in the present as well as the past. We can find out a lot of information with the help of forensic anthropologists when it comes to victims of the past but they can also help us with victims of the present and finding justice for them. The combination of the forensic anthropologists into the criminal justice system have probably increased the success rate of crime convictions and led to solving very old crimes that were previously unsolved or controversial.
It is very interesting how much we can learn from bones – gender, injury, and etc., to learn about ancient individuals. The cause of death isn’t the only thing that could be learned from bones, but other insights on daily life could be uncovered as well. I did my blog on paleopathology, which is the study of ancient diseases and health throughout history. This relationship also helps us learn how it shaped and continues to shape human culture(s). By understanding human health in the past, insights on future human health can be predicted as well. One example of this that I looked at was the Black Plague. Due to the deaths of millions that it caused, it helped us advanced in our knowledge of vaccines and sanitation later.