“Few disciplines have suffered as much from the intrusion of popular culture as forensic anthropology,” says world-renowned forensic anthropologist, Professor Sue Black of the University of Dundee in Scotland. “From the smiling skull uncovered for Taggart or reconstructed for Morse to the heroines of Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell. The cameras have been admitted into our isolated academic world and sometimes it is difficult to live up to the public’s expectations.”
Definition of Forensic Anthropology
Forensic Anthropologists help establish the identity of the deceased, especially after war crimes and mass disasters like Tsunamis, earthquakes or floods. They are amused and perplexed that people think their part of the forensic investigation deals only with dry old bones.
Forensic Anthropology is the study of the human skeleton in a legal setting, usually where crime is suspected. Practitioners, called forensic anthropologists, are often expert witnesses whose testimony in court carries a lot of weight. Forensic anthropologists need to be qualified scientists, experienced and well trained.
Forensic Anthropologists in Popular Culture
Recently the profession of Forensic Anthropology has become increasingly visible in popular culture through the work of Kathy Reichs, a real-life forensic anthropologist and author, whose heroine, Temperance Brennan, works in the field, and is also the central character in the television series, Bones and of course, the so called CSI Effect.
Not to be Confused with Forensic Pathologists
Forensic Anthropologists must not be confused with Forensic Pathologists, whose job is to examine corpses to determine the cause of death.
Forensic Anthropologist gets OBE
In 1999 Sue Black became the lead forensic anthropologist to the British Forensic Team in Kosovo, deployed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on behalf of the United Nations. She was awarded an OBE for her services to forensic anthropology in Kosovo.
Bone Detective in the Balkans
Black spoke to Julie Bindel of The Guardian about being a “bone detective” and her most high profile assignment to Kosovo where her team identified bodies in the Balkans - both for public record, and for burial. The techniques Black used included comparing dental records with the corpses, and examining markers on the bone to determine age, ethnicity and gender.
What the Bones Reveal
In the same article, Forensic Anthropologist, Sue Black mentions three interesting facts that bones (or missing bones) reveal in forensic investigations:
- if a person had a tattoo, but the tattooed limb is missing, the different coloured inks will be stored in the lymph nodes.
- Having been called in to identify a severed leg washed up on a beach recently, Black explains that the chemical composition of the food the man had eaten in his final months led colleagues to where he had lived.
- Black recounts the harrowing story of examining the bones of a nine-year-old boy who hanged himself. The lines of increased density in his legs meant that at regular periods - in this case, every 12 months - his bones had stopped growing for a time. Black told investigators that children stop growing during periods of trauma.” They discovered that his parents would go on holiday, and leave the boy with his grandfather," says Black. "The grandfather had been abusing him during that time, which caused the boy to take his life."
Sue Black is head of Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Dundee, which runs undergraduate courses in forensic anthropology and postgraduate courses in Human Identification. This department is training the UK National Disaster Victim Identification (UK DVI) team for police and scientists in advanced mortuary practices.
Sources:
Forensic Anthropology – The Journey from Culloden to Iraq.Professor Sue Black OBE FRSE, Head of Unit, Anatomy and Forensic Anthropology, University of Dundee.
Forensic Anthropology – In the real world. The Edinburgh Lectures.
Crime scene investigator: Sue Black tells Thomas MacMahon about her work as a forensic anthropologist. (Profile)Publication: Student BMJ. Publication Date: 01-MAR-04. Author: MacMahon, Thomas
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