Biological anthropology, by definition, is the study of the biological and behavioral components that make up a human and their communities. Further understanding the ways in which our physical bodies and genes make up how we look and behave can help us truly discover what makes us unique. When looking into the subdivisions of this field, I found myself extremely interested in the topic of forensic anthropology. Through the website http://theabfa.org, I was able to explore the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, and how much forensics truly influences medical cases.
The American Board of Forensic Anthropology, or ABFA, is an organization that “uses the science, methodology, and technology of physical/biological anthropology and related fields to help address medicolegal issues.” (American) More specifically, it is the skeleton that forensic specialists focus on. For example, when a deceased body is found belonging to an unknown person, perhaps a burn victim or one that is damaged beyond repair, the forensic team will study the physical skeleton in order to gather DNA to identify them. According to the website, the skull is the best of all bones to gather information from. Not only can one match a person to their body using forensic anthropology, but it is possible to even determine the body’s age at the time of death, their sex, their facial appearance, and their past relatives. It is easier for an adult to be identified, for it is more simple to gather information about height, sex, and age using teeth and the skull. This method is not only used for identifying a recently deceased body, but also for decomposing skeletons and human remains. If remains are found on the grounds or a house or in unmarked graves, people like in the American Board of Forensic Anthropology will study the remains and begin to build a “biological profile” (American) of the deceased. This could include everything from their past, for example not only their age and sex, but how they died. Marks within the skeleton can determine what weapon was used upon them to kill them, and when.
It is fascinating to me that it is possible that my entire physical identity can be traced back to my skeleton. Every day new bodies are being found unfortunately with not much known about them. It is the forensic anthropologists such as the ABFA who are the ones that bring their identities back to them. Even after death our bodies carry our story, and it is important for forensic anthropologists to help in criminal cases and well as historical ones. Whether you lived in the year 1019 or 2019, your body’s uniqueness lives on. This is what ties forensic anthropology to the broader biological anthropology. Anthropology stresses the ideas of what makes each persona and each community unique. Your body’s physical form tells so much about you, where you came from, and what you do. Even in death that lives on, and from an evolutionary standpoint it is incredibly interesting to use skeletons as a way to explain the lives of the past.
Work Cited
American Board of Forensic Anthropology, theabfa.org/.
Hello,
I think it is great that the source you have found has furthered your understanding of this field of anthropology, it has given me more insight on to the type of work forensic anthropologists do, past what was briefly talked about in the lecture. Although, I would like to know more about the website specifically, and what kind of research or work they do to further the concept of forensic anthropology. I do think that what you talked about could be understood from most websites about forensic anthropology, and would love if you dug deeper to a specific topic in this field that you may be interested in. Maybe you could think about how forensic anthropologists look at dental records of skeletons to help determine someone’s approximate age at the time of death, or how they might look at different skeletons and determine the sex of the person based on different features on each skeleton’s cranium.
I think that forensic anthropology is super interesting! I never knew that human skulls are one of the most critical parts in identifying people and assisting in criminal investigations. I think it’s amazing how forensic scientists are able to use an individual’s remains to piece together specific parts of a crime or crime scene; the fact that forensic scientists are able to narrow down a time of death, type of weapon, cause of death, or even place of death is mindblowing to me. I wonder how forensic scientists are able to figure out the age, race, and many other factors about an individual looking at only their skull. I wonder what forensic scientists are able to learn about an individual by looking at other parts of the body.
Hello,
I specifically was looking for a blog post about forensic anthropology because I am super interested in that subfield. I am currently a pre-dental student and am possibly wanting to go into forensic Odontology. Basically that is a forensic dentist. I agree with everything that you put in this post. When you said that it was fascinating how your entire physical identity can be traced back from your skeleton, I entirely agree. I find it amazing how they can examine you and figure out the cause of death, your age, etc. In my opinion, if you liked this topic maybe zoom in on one part of the body and looked that up to see how they can tell your age and the cause of death. Like teeth, just for an example. Overall, this was a great read and I am glad others find forensic anthropology just as interesting as I do!
I think Forensic Anthropology is a huge field that doesn’t get much acknowledgement on how vital it can be in many different ways. Forensic Anthropology can be useful in so many different situations that can help scientists make new discoveries, or even give key information for crime scenes, time of death and how death occurred, murder weapons, etc. There are so many things that can come from this area of study and I don’t think its really widely known how beneficial this field is. I think its amazing to realize that our stories can be continued on past death with this field of study to share and investigate the body to continue this story.