What is the Main Focus of Forensic Anthropology?
Anthropology seeks to understand the uniqueness and diversity along with the fundamental similarities of mankind in different parts of the globe. Forensic Anthropology comes from two words one is Latin, Forensic that is ‘on the forum’ and the other is Greek, “Anthropos” meaning “human” or man, and Logia (Greek) meaning ‘study’. So literally, forensic anthropology translates as the study of man for the court.
Forensic Anthropology is concerned with the cause or matter of the man of death. It is also establishing the mere identity of the deceased. Often this involves skeletal remains. The Forensic Anthropologist may assist on a single basis such as this whether a suspicious death or manmade incident. It has been an explosion or accident.
Forensic anthropologists are often asked to find the material remains that are washed up on the beach, working in wetlands. Also, people frequently start to find bones when digging a garden or when there is a building project ongoing. You can get anthropology project help from experts.
Forensic Anthropologists are found to work with the police, forensic archaeologists at the crime scene or the burial site respectively. Often these bones are found in distance or scattered due to scavengers’ activity.
It is also difficult to spot the bones due to weathering of the bones or by other elements. Sometimes in overseas analysis, the conditions are challenging like war space area. Despite the conditions, the Forensic Anthropologist work to the highest standard possible. Their job is to provide evidence to the court when someone is prosecuted by a crime.
The Forensic expert work in any kind of condition imaginable. When a body is found that is flashed but not a skeleton, it is likely the DNA samples or fingerprint samples will be given to the databases to reach the quick and reliable identification of the deceased. With skeletal remains, fingerprints are gone and DNA remain will not be successful because of decomposition. But if the deceased DNA is not recorded in the database, then the job becomes much more difficult. One of the hardest cases is where the identity of the victim is not known.
The investigating authorities do not know whom to talk to. For the family, friends, colleagues, it is that forensic Anthropologist who covers the identity of the deceased. In the skeleton, all parts must be relocated and recovered as a part of the paperwork forensic anthropologist who find paperwork and fill in their recording form. This provides a pictorial representation about which part of the body is found and which is not. It may be necessary to search for those parts which are not present.
What are the 3 Subfields of Forensic Anthropology?
Forensic anthropology is one of the sub-disciplines within the subfield of Physical or Biological Anthropology. Forensic Anthropology, therefore, find its application in various subfields of Anthropology, which includes Forensic archaeology, Forensic taphonomy in legal settings. A forensic anthropologist can assist in the identification of individuals whose remains are decomposed, burnt, mutilated, or unrecognised. Forensic archaeologists are found to get involved within three main areas. These are assisting with crime scene research, their proper investigation, and recovery of evidence or skeletal remains.
Importance of Forensic Anthropology
Both bioarchaeology and forensic anthropology have different goals and purposes. But one thing that is common between these two is, they both rely on skeletal analysis to reveal information about the deceased. This happens to determine more information regarding an individual deceased for thousands of years (like in bioarchaeologists) or one who died within the last year (like in forensic anthropologists), they carry out the same basic steps as part of their analysis. The importance of forensic anthropology has been explained clearly. They continue with seven basic steps in the form of questions:
Is it bone?
Is it human?
Is it modern or archaeological?
How many individuals are present or what is the minimum number of individuals (MNI)?
Who is it?
Is there evidence of trauma before or around the time of death?
What happened to the remains after death?
Now after collecting all the details it is therefore necessary to construct the biological profile. This includes the following:
Who Is It?
This remains the very first question for any law enforcement officer when they came across a skeletal remains. A forensic anthropologist tries to construct the biological profile from the skeletal remains and identify the deceased individual.
Estimating the sex of the evidence
This goes hand in hand when a forensic Anthropologist determines the biological profile of the individual. The morphological traits, the skull and the pelvis are the areas for the estimation of sex from the skeletal remains.
Estimating the ancestry
Human populations vary in their phenotype due to environmental forces and this forensic anthropologists can use these morphological variations to predict the ancestral origins of an unidentified individual.
Estimating the age
Our bones and teeth cease to grow and develop, the bone begins to undergo structural changes, or degeneration, associated with aging. But this does not happen at a faster rate and therefore less accurate age estimation is possible. So with our bones and teeth remains a Forensic Anthropologist can easily tell the probable age of the individual.
Estimating the stature
Often, Bioarchaeologists and forensic anthropologists involve the method of measurement of stature to provide a range within which an individual’s biological height would fall. The person’s true anatomical height is his Biological height. However, the range created through these estimations is often compared to the reported stature which is typically self-reported and based on an approximation of an individual’s true height.
Identification Using Individualizing Characteristics
Identifications are what we refer to as individualizing traits or characteristics, which are traits that are unique at the individual level. For example, brown hair is not an individualizing trait as brown is the most common hair color in the U.S. Instead, a specific pattern of dental restorations or surgical implants can be individualizing, because it is unlikely that you will have an exact match on either of these traits when comparing two individuals. This methodological approach is often necessary while analysis is done on the unidentified remains.
Thus a Forensic anthropologist plays a vital role in determining the ethical concern with the human skeletal and involves in the medicolegal system. The role of the forensic anthropologist within the medicolegal system is primarily to provide information to the medical examiner or coroner that will aid in the identification process or determination of cause and manner of death. Forensic anthropologists also may be called to testify in a court of law. In this regard, forensic anthropologists should always abide by a series of ethical guidelines that include validity to their interpretation, presentation, and preservation of evidence used in criminal investigations.
Takeaways
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