FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY: HISTORY, WHAT IT STUDIES AND BRANCHES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The forensic anthropology is a branch of biological anthropology, which in turn is a derivative of anthropology, science that is responsible for studying the behavior of human beings both past and present of.

People in this profession, known as forensic anthropologists, analyze legal cases of skeletons whose condition makes it difficult to recognize or simply need to be identified.

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Forensic anthropologists work alongside other professionals who apply law or medical science, such as ballistics, pathology, serology, toxicology, and explosives specialists.

Forensic anthropology, like the other specialties of anthropology, uses empirical evidence, genetic information, and technology to conduct studies on human remains.

History

the beginning

During the early years, forensic anthropologists used measurement techniques to determine certain common biological traits in the same population of human beings; technique known as anthropometry. With this, they were able to differentiate the members of one community from another.

Despite the difficulty for this branch of anthropology to be accepted as a science, the application of forensic anthropology emerged after the basic career as such was adopted as a scientific discipline.

The study of this science was expanded after criminal anthropologists ensured that phrenology and physiognomy could link human behavior with a series of specific characteristics.

Advances

In 1893, the Austrian criminologist Hans Gross made a manual that allowed the establishment of forensic medicine as a science. In it, he assured that criminology was a series of knowledge that allowed the research methodology to focus on the data obtained from physical evidence.

The study of fingerprints, hair fibers and the place where the remains were found were part of Gross's proposal in his publication, which allowed expanding the study of forensic anthropology.

On the other hand, at the beginning of the 20th century, blood groups A, B, AB and O were discovered, which made blood a fundamental factor for the development of this branch of anthropology.

Years later, unique genetic characteristics that could be found in DNA, fingerprints, hair, blood, tissue, and semen were discovered, making it easier to differentiate one human being from another.

Boom

Forensic anthropology gained strength from 1940, when the American anthropologist Wilton Krogman promoted major advertising campaigns to highlight this science as a fundamental added value. According to Krogman, this science would help law enforcement agencies identify human remains.

The measure was successful, so forensic anthropologists became part of the team of federal agencies during that decade.

Later, in 1950, anthropologists helped the United States Army identify the corpses of soldiers who died in battle. Some suggest that the application of forensic anthropology formally began at this time.

The opportunity also meant an important benefit for the practitioners of that area, because the large number of corpses that came to their hands allowed them to expand their knowledge.

A few years later, William Bass, a forensic anthropologist from the United States, opened the first facility to conduct forensic anthropological research. The participation of the experts of this science in important cases of the time increased the interest of the population in forensic anthropology.

What does forensic anthropology study?

The body

Forensic anthropologists work with bodies that can be found in a variety of conditions: they investigate mummies, individual bones, bodies in an advanced state of decomposition, or charred remains.

Today, their participation in the identification of victims of natural disasters or air accidents is notorious.

Investigations begin with a search party in a certain area, a process that can lead to the discovery of a corpse or a skeleton. Anthropologists usually participate in the first steps of the investigation to make the corresponding analysis of the place where the body to be studied was found.

After doing the analysis of the place where the body was found, the skeleton is taken to a forensic laboratory to classify the bones by size and join them to build the shape of the body, if possible.

Once the body is reconstructed, the forensic anthropologist performs the study of the bones. At that time, among other things, it analyzes the traumas that the person may have suffered before, during or after death.

Sex

If the bones found are distinctive of the sex of the body found, the forensic anthropologist may be able to determine whether they were male or female.

One of the most important pieces to reach a decisive result is the pelvis. The shape of the pubic arch and an analysis of the sacrum are essential to achieve an accurate result on the sex of the person to whom the skeleton belonged.

In addition to the pelvis, the skull also provides characteristic elements in men that differ from those of women. The temporal line, the eye socket, the crest of the eyebrow, the nuchal lines and the mastoid process of the temporal bone are the parts with the most distinctive elements between both sexes.

Despite these analyzes, the morphological differences that exist between each human being and the age ranges sometimes prevent sex from being defined.

For this reason, forensic anthropologists make a classification that reduces the tendency to make mistakes: male, possibly male, indeterminate, possibly female, and female.

Height

One of the most common ways to determine the height of the person to whom the skeleton belonged is to measure the bones of the leg: the fibula, tibia, and femur. However, the arm bones also provide information about a person's height.

Although these bones provide valuable information for the determination of height, it is convenient that the sex, ancestry and age of the person is known before evaluating the point of height; this due to the morphological differences between the populations.

Age

One of the ways to determine the age of a person is through the analysis of the growth stage of the bones. In people under the age of 21, the evidence is usually provided by the teeth; however, certain characteristics of other bones such as the skull, tibia, and clavicle can provide such information.

Determining the age of a child is easier than that of an adult, because throughout childhood the bones undergo more noticeable changes, but when adulthood is reached, the normal growth process stops.

Despite this, the bone continues to be constantly renewed; one of the changes that it undergoes over time is the evolution of osteons, which are cylindrical structures of a considerably small size found in the bone itself.

The changes in the osteons are a fundamental part of determining the age of a skeleton of someone who passed 21 years of age before dying. On the other hand, the age of the person at the time of death can also be determined by the degenerative changes that the bone presents.

Ancestry

Historically, forensic anthropologists have classified into historical groups to determine the ancestry of the person based on their provenance.

However, making such a determination is found by some to be increasingly difficult over the years due to marriages between people of different races.

The maxilla is the bone commonly used to make a determination about the ancestry of the corpse; result that they reach after carrying out highly complex mathematical processes based on the characteristics of the piece.

Branches

Forensic archeology

They are those people who specialize in the extraction of the correct shape of the bones from the place where they are. Its function is to collect the bones in the proper way to avoid any type of alteration in its structure that could make the investigation difficult.

The observation of the terrain where the body is located is a fundamental part of its study. This space can include clandestine graves, wells or places under water; however, extractions at the latter site are rare.

Forensic taphonomy

The people in charge of this area are in charge of studying the changes that the body experiences after its death based on its decomposition and the environmental changes of the place where it is found.

The influence of the soil, water and the action of animals on it are elements to be taken into account by the forensic taxonomist.

Forensic osteology

The specialist in charge of this branch of forensic anthropology has as its main objective the study of bones. Professionals in this area pay special attention to the skeleton of bodies that are of significant age.

It is one of the branches that seeks to reveal which were the populations that inhabited different parts of the world in the past, which is why some consider it as the area that allows a greater approach to the origins of the human being.

References

1. Forensic anthropology, H. James Birx, Encyclopedia Britannica, (nd). Taken from britannica.com
2. Forensic Anthropology, Wikipedia in English, (nd). Taken from wikipedia.org
3. Forensic Anthropology, David Hunt, Portal Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, (nd). Taken from qrius.si.edu
4. Forensic Anthropologist Job Description, Portal Crime Scene Investigator EDU, (nd). Taken from crimesceneinvestigatoredu.org
5. Forensic Anthropology, Portal Investigating Forensics, (nd). Taken from sfu.museum
6. Forensic archeology: context, methods and interpretation, Derek Congram, Portal Research Gate, (2016). Taken from researchgate.net