Four Branches Of Forensic Anthropology

Anthropology, the study of humankind, has four main branches: Cultural Anthropology, Archaeology, Linguistic Anthropology and Physical Anthropology (Larsen 2014). Physical Anthropology focuses mainly on uncovering the mysteries of human evolution by studying fossilized bones of ancient humans and primates to determine their place in our family tree and study what circumstances led to the evolution of the modern human (Larsen 2014). There is a specialty within Physical Anthropology called Forensic Anthropology that "examine skeletons to identify who they were in life" (Larsen 2014:6). Some from that field apply that extensive knowledge of bones to the remains of modern humans to help investigators determine the circumstances surrounding the death of that person and whether or not they have been murdered. This paper will focus on how those forensic anthropologists identify victims by calculating their age, sex and ancestry. Then through the use of facial reconstruction …show more content…
Through assisting medical examiners and coroners with their expertise they can identify and determine the cause of death of a body by only examining their skeletal remains. Forensic anthropologists pick up clues from the bones using the morphology of the hip bone to determine sex, the angle of skull bones and level of erosion of the pubic symphyseal to determine age of the victim at the time of death and use bone strength, body stature and cranial morphology to determine the ancestry of the skeletal remains. They then use those newly uncovered features and integrate them with the study of facial tissue in order to recreate the face the person once had which furthers the efforts to identify the body. In certain cases forensic anthropologists can even help uncover the cause of death to the victim by checking for trauma to the bones. By using science and following the clues, forensic anthropologist help solve