Forensic Anthropology Research Paper

There is a common expression in the detective stories that “Dead men tell no tales.” This is not true. A forensic anthropologist uncovers the mysteries of the dead. The forensic anthropologist has many jobs. “They collect human remains, prepare and analyze bones, identify trauma, work to match dental records, and they may be called to testify in court” (Steinberg 1). The forensic anthropologist becomes involved when there are “mass disasters where many people are killed in a very short period of time, such as an airplane wreck, riot, or flood” (1). They are also involved in “political atrocities, which are those situations in which a government eliminates a segment of its civilian population” (1). …show more content…
To identify the age of a victim, forensic anthropologists use the sutures of the skull, the teeth, the ends of the clavicle, the ends of the long bones in the arms and legs, the pubic symphysis, and the joints between bones (Libal 18). In order to determine the sex of a victim, an anthropologist looks at the pelvis and the skull. The pelvis of a male is narrow, deep, has a heart shaped inlet, and a notch that is narrow and less than fifty degrees. The female pelvic bone is wide, shallow, has an oval shaped pelvic inlet, and a notch that is over fifty degrees. The skulls of males are robust. Their foreheads slope backward, they have chins that are more square like, they have ridges of bone in the eyebrow area, and they have lumps of bone at the bottom of the skull. The skulls of females are more gracile skulls. They have rounded foreheads, rounded chins, smooth bone above the eye sockets, and commonly their bones are smaller than those of men (22, 23, and 25). To figure out the race of a victim, an anthropologist looks at the skull, as well as the size and density of other bones in the body. The victim is Negroid, if the skull is rounded, with a longer cranium, a wide, smooth nasal aperture, and wide set ocular orbits. Negroid bones are also, usually heavier and denser. The victim is Mongoloid, if they have a wide-flat face, with prominent …show more content…
There are two methods that anthropologists can use to reconstruct the face. They can use the Russian or the American method. The Russian method builds models of each of the face’s muscles before adding the “skin,” while the American method adds strips of clay to build the face without sculpting the muscles underneath (37-38). Forensic anthropologists play a major role, in giving faces to the lost, however forensic artists, also play a big role in the process. The goal of a forensic artist is to make a model of the person look exactly like the actual person so that a friend, family member, coworker, or acquaintance will recognize it. They can do this by adding the victim’s eye color, hair color, or any other unique features to the model, that will help make it more recognizable. A forensic artist guesses eye color based upon common types for the victim’s racial group and based upon common types for the victim’s region. Although the artist wants the person to be recognizable, the artist has to be careful not to add too many details, because making too many guesses might make it inaccurate (38-43). Technology has made the process of facial reconstruction, so much easier for forensic artists and anthropologists. To help reconstruct the face, forensic anthropologists and artists can look at a CT scan. A CT scan is a special X-ray picture that tells the difference