the answer to that question is, yes! Facial reconstruction is not a new avenue of identification, but is continually adapting to be more useful in the forensic community. The documentary, The Mad Trapper tells the story of a Canadian mystery where an unidentified criminal is exhumed in attempts to attain an actual identification using new forensic techniques. This essay will provide an explanation of basis of facial reconstruction, outlining the major categories of reconstruction and the…
Biological anthropology is one of the four main fields of anthropology. Biological anthropology—also called physical anthropology—includes human evolution, non-primatology, and biological adaptations to the environment. Biological anthropology is a popular area of study within anthropology. It is the combination of both the biological and social sciences to answer questions about human adaptability and evolution. As far as research methods go, biological anthropologists tend to include more…
In this paper, I will explore how anthropologists in different fields of anthropology view and define race. Most racial studies have been done my biological or physical anthropologists. They study race as a concept; how to define it, how to classify it,…
Anthropology is the science of humans; this particular science is dedicated to the comparative study of humans as physical and cultural beings. Cultural anthropology and Physical anthropology are two distinct specialties within the broader discipline. Early on when anthropologists studied physical anthropology, they were studying humans as biological organisms based on fossil remains containing DNA. Cultural anthropology studies human beings by examining the culture of different groups and…
Among them Roxana Ferllini, a forensic anthropologist, and D.W. Steadman and William Haglund, the former an anthropologist and the latter a physician for human rights, argue that a multidisciplinary approach is not just the most effective but is required “in order to complete the tasks…
Anthropology is the study of the human race throughout time. It is linked to many other social sciences especially human biology, sociology, psychology, etc. Although they may have things in common, anthropology focuses mainly on the connections and interrelationships of all human aspects. Also, anthropology focuses on non-western people and cultures while other social sciences tend to concentrate more on American and European areas. This holistic perspective allows anthropologists to make their…
For four years during my undergrad I had the privilege of studying Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. When I started college, I believed that I would be pursuing a career in the museum world as a curator or in museum administration. However, my interests in the justice system along with my background in Anthropology conflicted with that goal of working in a museum setting until I found that I could have a career involving both of my areas of study. My…
becoming academically engaged with archaeology and anthropology, I chose to switch majors to allow a wider field of study. During my four years of undergraduate, I was determined to broaden my skill set focusing on each aspect of the discipline as a whole. My minor in forensic anthropology allowed me to gain experience with human remains and biological anthropology. Through my undergraduate thesis and course final, I focused on cultural anthropology and worked extensively with human…
Forensic Sciences: the History, the Advancements, and the Achievements Could you get away with murder? Hundreds of years ago you probably could, but today with all the advancements that have been made in technology and forensic science many of the toughest cases are solved that couldn’t be before. While forensic science might not always be 100% accurate, it has developed a lot since it was first practiced and without using forensic science a lot of crimes would go unsolved. Forensic science…
I chose to write my bio-sketch on Clea Koff, she is a forensic anthropologist and author who worked for the United Nations as well as for the Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the tribal for the formal Yugoslavia. She was born in 1972 in London, England to Msindo Mwinyipembe and David Koff. Her father was American and Jewish, and her mother was Tanzanian. Both of her parents were documentary filmmakers who were focused on many issues such as human rights and traveled the world for their work;…