Concepts in Teaching Forensic Anthropology M. Yasar Iscan Medical Anthropology Newsletter, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Nov., 1981), 10-12. Stable URL: bttp//links jstor.org/sici?sici=0543-2490% 28 198111%291%3A 13%3A1%3C10%3ACITEA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A, Medical Anthropology Newsletter is currently published by American Anthropological Association, ‘Your use of the ISTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use, available at hhup:/www.jstororg/about/terms.hml. JSTOR’s Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at hup:/www jstor.org/journals/anthro. hl Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the sereen or printed page of such transmission, STOR is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of scholarly journals, For more information regarding JSTOR, please contact support @jstor.org. upulwww jstor.org/ Thu Mar 10 01:45:44 2005DISSERTATIONS IN PROGRESS: A CALL FOR PAPERS ‘Again this year the student members of the Medical Sociology Section Council of the American Sociological Association are organizing an evening session, “Dissertations in Progress,” to be held at the Annual Meeting in September 1982 in San Francisco. Graduate students in medical sociol- ogy, medical anthropology, public health, or nursing are in vited to deliver a 15-minute talk on the substantive content of their dissertations and on an issue involved in the disser- tation process (¢.g., negotiating with gatekeepers, emergent ethical problems, dealing with advisors, funding). The dissertation need not be completed; works in the planning stage are acceptable. Papers will be astessed on the basis of topical interest and research design. Contributions are solicited from graduate students who will have received their degrees no earlier than December 1981 ‘Contributions should include a paper on the substantive issues of the dissertation and the particular process issues to be discussed, and carry the contributor’s name, year of study, departmental affiliation, and address. Papers must be submitted in duplicate, one copy each to the following: Roberta Lessor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, N-631Y, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143 (415/666-8407); and Barbara Altman, Sociology Department, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 (301/454-6036). CONCEPTS IN TEACHING FORENSIC ANTHROPOLOGY* by M. Yasar Iscan (Dept. of Anthropology, Florida Atlantic University) In the last 10 years, a new subdiscipline of anthropology has received increasing attention from anthropologists and various nonacademic agencies such as law enforcement and jurisprudence. This new subspecialty, now called forensic anthropology, is a multidisciplinary field combining physical anthropology, archeology. and other fields of an- thropology with the forensic sciences, including forensic dentistry, pathology, and criminalistics. Since many of the principal practitioners of this new subdiscipline are or will bbe anthropologically trained, itis timely to think about how 4a course in forensic anthropology can be most appropriately structured and taught. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to introduce essential concepts that can be used in teach: ing a course in forensic anthropology. Tn his recent book, T. Dale Stewart defines forensic an- thropology as that “branch of physical anthropology which, for forensic purposes, deals with the identification of more or less skeletonized remains known to be, or suspected of be- 2g a aia on oan a Fr ney ifr il ace vay Foy Se ie ing, human” (1979:ix). Similarly, in a brochure explaining functions and procedures ofthe American Board of Forensic Anthropology. forensic anthropology is defined as "the study and practice of the application of the methods of physical anthropology to the: process of the lave.” Both definitions, however, are narrow in the sense that they incorporate the concepts and methods of other subdis ciplines of anthropology, especially archeology: yet, in a forensic sense, archeological techniques may be the most ap- propriate for the investigation of an “outdoor” erime scene (Morse, Crusoe, and Smith 1976) In addition, forensic anthropology is far from being solely a field of human skeletal identification, asthe former defini tion seems to imply. Rather, it is best conceptualized more broadly as a field of forensic assesment of human remains and their environments. This assessment includes not only the identification process (e.g., of age, sex, race, and stature) but also the determination of cause and manner of death. Reconstruction of an ante-mortem biological biog: raphy, ineluding attempted reconstruction of a victim's way of life up to the time of death, is also a part of the assess ment. This modified definition also places forensic anthro- pology alongside the other forensic disciplines, on equal footing, in terms of its achievement, with forensic pathol ogy. This last statement is particularly significant because before the formal organization of forensic anthropology, the forensic pathologists played the “most authoratative" role in the entire forensic profession, a role still justified because most of the medical examiners are alzo profesionals trained in pathology. A short history of forensic anthropology may be useful in order to understand the processes the subdiscipline has gone through to reach its current level of sophistication. Accord: ing t0 Stewart (1979) the field started in 1878 with a publication by Thomas Dwight on the use of skeletal re: ‘mains in medicolegal practice. From that date until about 1970, research on human skeletons increased. but the number of practitioners remained marginally small. Among the most active anthropologists in these earlier periods were W. M, Krogman (in the 1980s and 1940s), T. D. Stewart (in the 1940s and 19503), and J. L- Angel (in the 1960s), all of ‘whom are widely knoven in the forensic and law enforcement field. Although the number of practicing anthropologists was few during the pre-1970 era, ie was the mos scientifically ac tive time, a developmental period in which sound osteolog. ical techniques and methods were devised and tested. These achievements may be attributed, first, 0 two major wars (World War II and the Korean War), and second, to assemblage of several large skeletal series with known in dividual identity (-e., the Terry and Todd Collections). ‘These two major but unrelated events led physical anthro- pologists to refine the techniques used in estimating age (McKern and Stewart 1957; Stewart and Trotter 1954), determining sex, asessing race, and approximating stature (Croter 1970). The results of these and many other studies ‘were immediately utilized by forensic pathologists in their practice and incorporated into reference books ‘A few anthropologists sensed the need to demonstrate the value of the anthropological perspective to other forensic specialists, law enforcement agents, and criminal lawyers,and began to publish review articles in nonanthropological periodicals—in law enforcement journals (Krogman 1938), Criminal law journals (Brues 1958), and in general forensic science books (Stewart 1968). The general theme in these publications by anthropologists was simply what nonanthro: pologicaly trained specialists could learn from a skeleton. ‘The writings of the post-1970 period, on the other hand, emphasized an almost completely opposite theme, that is, what anthropologists can tell specialists from analyzing a Skeleton, Thus, the transition from one period to another ‘was from one of being an advisor to one of being an author: y. “The year 1971 signified this change in role duc to the establishment of forensic anthropology as a branch of the ‘American Academy of Forensic Sciences, an action that led to forensic anthropologists becoming an integral part of forensic investigation teams. Forensic anthropologist in creasingly came to be included as part of forensic teams for various mass disasters (e.g., C. C. Snow in the 1979 DC-10 disaster and M. Charney in the 1976 Big Thompson Flood), mass murders (e.g, C. P. Warren in the Gacy Case), and an assassination case (E. R. Kerley and C. C. Snow in a recent reinvestigation of the 1963" assassination of John F. Kennedy). [As the teaching of detailed gross anatomy courses in ‘medical schools has declined and emphasis on skeletal struc tures has diminished, and as anthropologists have refined their forensic techniques, pathologists, dentists, criminal lawyers, and law enforcement officers have increasingly called upon anthropologists to provide this kind of training Now, it has become almost mandatory for a prosecuting oF defense attorney to call on an anthropologist for his expert opinion in court when the investigation was handled by an anthropologist or when the case involved skeletonized re ‘The American Board of Forensic Anthropology was es tablished in 1977 to control the quality of practicing an- thropologists, to provide assistance to the judicial system and to encourage research in forensic anthropology. To be certified by this board, candidates must meet certain re quirements, among them, a doctoral degree in physical an- thropology, an examination, and professional experience or postdoctoral training. The’ courts, however, have yet to ‘establish strict eriteria for selecting their expert witnesses and hence often fail to recognize the soundness ofthe foren sic anthropologist’ training, and have yet to capitalize fully ‘on ths training. Ie is perhaps for this very reason that the number of anthropologists assisting medical examiners and Jaw enforcement agencies is probably equal to, ifnot greater than, those who meet the board requirements Ie would be helpful at this point to define the function of forensic anthropology. Two main issues form the essence of a forensic skeletal investigation (Igean 1980). The first is ‘when a forensic anthropologist identifies the general biology of the victim. This procedure simply classifies an unknown, individual as a member of a population with a specific sex age, race, and stature. Most anthropological efforts are spent uying the techniques for determining these four aspects. As Kerley (1978) has noted, our ability to detect these biological characteristics at the population level has been fairly reliable. Today, however, practically every n forensic specials (e., demise and pathologists), and some crime scene investigators and law enforcement officers have been exposed to forensic anthropology in their formal or continuing education and are capable of eximating the hove mentioned biological chararieristce, Therefore, the improvement in the profesion of forensic anthropology has not been due only to the ability to eximate the general Biology ofa apecitic individual Te rather the second arpec of forensic anthropology — sessment of individual biology —that has made the eld a succesful forensic science. The atesment ofthe ie history fand the determination of the individuality of a skeleton in- solve an in-depth understanding of skeletal biology, related Snomalie, pathology, health, and dicate statis; these tstablish an’ ante-mortem skeletal biography. ‘The added bility to dere handedness, estimate the posible occupa tion, and perform a facial reconstruction from the skull tnables the forensic anthropologist to. relate the post mortem condition to the living morphology of the victim, Precise detection of pathology and crauma from the bones, whether it be antesmortem er post-mortem, may aid the Tegal authorities in understanding both cause of death and how death occurred. In short, an understanding of the ‘aration in single skeleton as wel ax skeletons of larger ‘ample is esetial to foresic anthropologists. Furthermore once the skeletal biography is asesed, postive identifica: fon of the viedim may become easier. This is especially true when dental evidence ie not available, and the skeletal data (erg. disease, anomaly, trauma, and the lke) may be the only data available for determining whether the characteris: tice of the remains match tho af persons reported to be waiing. The role of archeology in the above two issues fll into the assessment of individuality. Archeological techniques try t0 exablsh environmental conditions athe time of death, The natare of the body (buried, onthe surface, and direction buted), prevailing climate, terrain, physical te- mains, and. macroorganismal and. microorganisimal, 4c Seite ate all archeologial techniques, They determine then and how the vietim died "and. what. postmortem Changes occured to the body Another aspect ofthe discipline s that physical anthropo logical and archeological techniques are being tested for the firs ime in history. Although such atest may improve our ability to understand prehistoric people’ biology and behavior, the immediate implication of this text is that in correct identification could affect both the adequacy and reliability of anthropological techniques and also ase the ducatonal training of the practicing anthropologists. At the other extreme, a wrong interprecation of biological characteristics could present considerable problems for the Tegal system. For example, if the sex ofa victim i de termined incorrectly, the law enforcement officer will face the insoluble problem of eying to determine the identity of someone who never existed Once these concepts are understood, teaching a forensic anthropology couse could bea eal challenge. If a course i being offered atthe undergraduate level, one aust make the assumption thatthe student will come from several aca demic departments including. law. criminal justice riminalisics, anthropology, and premedical programs. Except for the anthropology student, few other students will have been exposed to anthropology, or their exposure will have been limited, at best, toa survey course. Areas such as osteology, osteopathology and trauma, genetics, growth, skeletal anomalies, osteometry, and, of course, archeolog. ical techniques will be areas in which many of these students will be deficient. Obviously, no one-semester course could possibly cover all of these teaching areas in depth, any more than any one such course could produce a forensic anthro- pologist. The compromise course that is outlined below, however, covers the essential areas within forensic anthro: pology. It is intended as a broad introduction to the issues and concepts in the field for a wide-ranging student au dience, and can be taught in one semester. The syllabus for such an introductory course is the following: 1. History and nature of forensic sciences, Reading Assignments: Eckert 1980; Myers and Brit: tain 1968. 2. History of forensic anthropology. Reading Assignments: Stewart 1979, 3. Archeological techniques. Reading Assignments: Brothwell 1972; Hester, Heizer, and Graham 1975; Morse, Crusoe, and Smith 1976 4, Human osteology. Reading Assignments: Bass 1971 5. Osteometry, Reading Assignments: Bass 1971 6. Sex determination. Reading Assignments: Bass Krogman 1962; Stewart 1979, 7. Race determination. Reading Assignments: Howells 1970; Krogman 1962; Stewart 1979, 8, Estimation of age. Reading Assignments: Bass 1971; Kerley Krogman 1962; McKern 1970; Stewart 1979. 9. Body size and stature. Reading Assignments: Bass 1971; Steele 1970; Stewart 1979; Trotter 1970. 1971; Giles 1970; 1970; 10, Human handedness. Reading Assignments: Stewart 1979, 11, Burned bodies. Reading Assignments: Stewart 1979, 12, Facial reconstruction, photograph, radiograph and skull superimposition Reading Assignments: Krogman 1962; Stewart 1979, 13, Skeletal pathology and trauma. Reading Assignments: Brothwell 1972; Steinbock 1976. 14, Expert witness Reading Assignments: Philipps 1977; Stewart 1979. Additional primary source material could be added, of ‘course, to increase the depth and breadth of coverage within the course. In addition, challenging experiments can be ad- ded. For instance, the instructor could bury a human skeleton and artifacts such as buttons, shoes, and bullets or other weapons. The uncovered remains could be analyzed by the students. Many forensic anthropology laboratories have donated forensic cases, one or more of which could be presented to students for an identification In summary, forensic anthropology has been a recently 2 recognized discipline of anthropology. The practitioners of the field are mostly university- or museum-based anthropol ogists. The subject is challenging since there is no room for error in determining individual characteristics. It is a science of precision and responsibility. It is expected that employment opportunities for forensic anthropologists will increase in time once techniques are perfected for determin: ing the characteristics of individual biology, once anthropol ‘ogists are able to provide more accurate information to the legal authorities. a, Wan M TOr1 Human Ontology: A Laboratory and Fil Mans sh Haman Shon, TOS eniicaton of teeta! Remain. Journal of Criminal Law 4855155 eter, Will 6: (el), "Eid DicriminasFancin Senng ofthe Human Shel. In Person es Tors "AG a Pe Methods Aha Pat Ao May ae ‘Naural Hisar, Sito Isetion Taio Rete of Emel of Foren Anhopaogy: Epeily a Developed enti ate by Dae Seer Fava Sene 295 Ta" Eman of Seal Age: fer About Age 3. fx Penal Henican i in Swat tp, wap B.Nanl sot "Req Bega Poe Atay ew of Py forcement Balen 85-3 ie Ha hn Triton Shea Ae rufa Aa 8 Yea a A. 19ST” heal Age Change in Young American Maley, Anse fom the Sand in of Age Identiiean. Technical Report EPs, Enoroamental Protection ear ri. Naeh, Ma Quemane Revs Dep seit ee Ahr of Frome Sec 1.858 “Tuk The Hat of Legal Medicine. tn Gradwohls Legal Modine. Camp Pp, Beal Jobe Wright, Pipe TSH TN and otf Teiing t+ Fae Sci Jor of ‘eniconn Mus Dassen Dewan oF 8597, Washngon DC salt Peps Spgs hs Chars Ta Toot Haeficalon by the Shea Srcate fe Geadwahts Legal Meine FE Campe Pp 125154 Brit: Jhn Wight 1999" EentieofForeie“Anthropsagy” apeisly a1 Deeaped in the ‘Unie Sse, Springs Chara © Thoms “ak ho fot Heer en Fondation fo Anos Reach ion n Mam Dnt TD. Swat el Pp. 7185, Wihingon DC" Na ‘onal Meu of Natarl Hho, Sint orerie Mecine, Spin H Charles ©