FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY

Forensic anthropology can be described as the analysis of human remains for the medico legal purpose of establishing identity. It is a multi-disciplinary endeavor that applies the knowledge of biological anthropology and human osteology to cases where human remains are skeletonized, or where a detailed understanding of the growth and development, morphology, or reactive norms of the human body can assist other disciplines in positive identification. As such, it is perhaps best placed as a sub-discipline within the wider practice of forensic human identification, having applicability to both the living and the dead.Anthropologists are routinely called upon to assist in the identification of individuals whose remains are severely decomposed, burned, disrupted, mutilated or otherwise rendered difficult to recognize.Their services have been of particular value in three main areas: (i) investigations resulting from homicide, unexplained natural deaths, accidents, and mass fatalities; (ii) noncriminal events resulting in multiple deaths, e.g., arising from natural catastrophes; and (iii) war crimes investigations and genocide. However, the anthropologist may also be called upon to assist in the assessment of the living, providing confirmation of identifiers such as chronological age for the purposes of judicial accountability, immigration, or asylum status.The context under which many anthropological cases are undertaken has changed during the last decade owing to a number of factors that have influenced not only on how anthropologists perform their job but also the type of jobs they are now requested to undertake. The twenty-first century has seen an increasing perception of risk involvement in mass fatality incidents including accidents, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters.Terrorist activity resulting in mass fatalities, such as the September 11, 2001, bombing of the Twin Towers in New York, or the London bombings of July 7, 2005, has highlighted the requirement for national and international disaster victim identification (DVI) capability, and cemented the anthropologist’s role as a significant component within the multi-disciplinary.response facility. Thus, it may be argued that viewing the forensic anthropologist as someone who “deals with the analysis of human skeletal remains resulting from unexplained deaths”.