After reading the article, I learned a lot of information about how forensic scientists incorporate the basic ideas of anthropology into their work with criminal investigations. Forensic anthropology uses techniques and ideas from biological anthropology. Biological anthropology studies the physical details of how humanity functions. Considering forensics is the step in the criminal investigation that identifies biological profiles, there are a lot of key features from biological anthropology necessary in the lab process. The biological profile includes the key traits of the object they are working on. For example, sex, age, and ancestry are all required to be known. In addition to the basic information on the object, forensic anthropologists also analyze any injuries, diseases, or incidents that occurred during the time of death to figure out the possible cause. All of this information combined contributes to solving the mystery of how, when, and why a person died.
The article mentions the many steps and questions forensic anthropologists follow throughout their discovery process. These sub-steps also relate to other fields within the theme of anthropology. The first questions are asked to discover what type of body they are studying. Are their bones? Human bones, more specifically? The idea of cleaning and studying bones ties into archaeology and their study of fossils. Considering many objects can be mistaken as bone, it takes careful examination to decide the truth. Both subfield professionals use similar cleaning processes to further their study. Once it is known they are handling bones, they then work to find out what kind of bones and which bones are present. Both of these processes allow for further hypotheses on the cause of death. These steps incorporate techniques from pathology, another subfield of anthropology. Pathology analyzes each bone present for trauma or injury. This provides a background of what kind of body type the subject was, and traits of its history.
Sometimes, the bones or objects discovered fit the criteria to be considered ancient. The article specifically mentions Native Americans during the early years of America thousands of years ago. The constant migration led the tribes to bury their dead as they moved, and these burials were often left unmarked. When new burial sites are exposed, anthropologists are quick to study them. These situations create another cross-over between subfields. When forensic anthropologists declare the sight to be ancient, they are passed along to archaeologic anthropologists. Once examined, the remains are returned to tribes for proper burial.
During the analysis process, anthropologists discover a lot about the traits the subjects have. Examining the characteristics and connecting them to specific areas also further the study of how cultures and locations affect the variations in genes over time. Being able to analyze the physical and aspects of a human while also providing insight on how their life contributed to their death allows for future anthropologists to continue to study adaptation and natural selection. These processes also incorporate molecular anthropology and the study of how DNA determines evolutionary links between ancient and modern populations.
Forensic anthropology is really cool, it reminds me of that crime show Bones and I’ve always loved that show!
It really is incredible all the information one can get from bones, even ancient and bones in all stages of decomposition. You mention that they look over the remains for injury. It is impressive the knowledge they can find through this sort of investigation. The way it healed (or didn’t heal) can show if it happened a long time ago, antemortem/postmortem, or even if it was possibly the cause of death.
I didn’t consider how that would show natural selection but once I read your post it seemed obvious. You would see characteristics of those that died earlier that those who lived longer may not have had, or had but less prevalent.
As with all other disciplines this one operates best with contributions from the different sub fields.
I posted my blog on molecular and medical anthropology and in many way, I think that forensic anthropology is included within those fields. It’s incredibly interesting the way anthropologists can use the tiniest bit of evidence like hair, dirt, finger prints etc to sometimes tell the whole story of the crime; and then find the people involved with the crime. I recently watched a documentary called “when they see us.” The case covers 5 young boys who are accused of attacking and raping a young woman. Due to their age, they were manipulated into giving a confession. The DNA evidence was inconclusive due to this happening decades ago. In the early 2000s, a man in prison gave a confession to the crime which then induced a reexamination in the DNA and the boys were released. Our new technology has helped map the human genome and right the wrongs that have done prior to it.