Anthropology Quiz #8
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Forensic Science
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apply science to those criminal and civil laws that are enforced by police agencies in a criminal justice system
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Biological anthropologists
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study skeletal remains for medico-legal purposes and especially for the identification of unknown individuals
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Anthropometry
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first scientific system of personal identification using body measurements; used to identify criminals and victims
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Kennewick Man
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9000 year old skeleton found that is an example of the importance of aging specimens correctly
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Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI)
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start with the Minimum Number of Elements (how many femurs, radius, etc..); identify, side, and age every bone; count the number of left and right elements and whichever has more
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4 Classes of Bone
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Long bone, short bone, flat bone, irregular bone; important in identifying small fragments
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Sexual Variation
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seen through dimorphism between males and females as well as more obvious muscle attachments in males
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Ontogenic Variation
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seen through differences in life history stages of growth
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Age Determination
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finding biological age; more accurate in children than adults; changes occur slowly through life, and at specific times in sequence; seen through dental eruption, epiphyseal fusion, skull growth, cranial sutures, and pubic symphysis
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Biological Age
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refers to age at time of death
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Epiphyseal Fusion
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head to shaft connection of long bones in the body with age; begins earlier in females; known age range for post-cranial
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Cranial Sutures
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lines where plates separate at birth and then fuse with age
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Dental Eruption
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emergence of teeth; accurate way of aging until teeth are fully grown, then less accurate when measuring tooth wear
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Pubic Symphysis
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Comparison of where the pubic bones fuse together; furrow (billowing) on face fill in early on, leading to a smooth surface that becomes pitted and worn with old age
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Sex Determination
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in general, males are taller and stronger so bones are longer and muscle attachment areas are rougher; measured through pelvic girdle, skull features, and metrics like bone measurement and ancestry
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Pelvic Girdle
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flared and circular in females with a greater sciatic notch; not a reliable indicator of sex in children
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Skull Features
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men tend to be more robust with muscle markings, larger mastoid process, more prognathism, more sloping forehead, and larger brow ridges
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Ancestry Determination
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often seen that populations closer to one another geographically tend to look similar; translated into skeletal features, lingual tooth surface, nose, and orbital outline
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Lingual Tooth Surface
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a canalized trait; example being shovel-shaped incisors of some people of Asian ancestry
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Stature Determination
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measure individual bones and put in stature equation; some error with fresh bone being 1.5% longer
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Pathologies
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kinds include congenital/developmental, inflammation, infection, vascular or neoplastic, metabolic, and degenerative
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Trauma
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use for assisting with identifying cause & manner of death as well as victim identification; involves identifying when it happened and the category
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Ante-mortem
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before death
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Post-mortem
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after death
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Peri-mortem
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around time of death
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Blunt force
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injury caused by a blow that does not penetrate the skin or other body tissues; distinct fracture pattern
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Sharp force
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incised wound, stab wound, puncture wound
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Gunshot
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separate from blunt force trauma due to the edges of outer table being smooth in entry wound and beveled in exit wound; also more fracturing than blunt force
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Parrying
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a defensive fracture occurring when arms are held up in defense
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Social/Cultural Anthropology
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role of culture in human behavior, though, and social life
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Biological Anthropology
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interplay between human culture and biology
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Linguistic Anthropology
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language as it shapes, transmits, and reveals culture and cognition
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Archaeology
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study of humans (especially human behavior) in the past
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Culture's Seven Cs
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Cross-Cultural Comparisons, Cherished, Context, Communicated, Changing, Cognitive, Constructed
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Medical Anthropology
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multifaceted intersection of social/cultural and biological anthropology; operates at a population level and understands individuals are influenced by their environment; measured through anthropological and quantitative methods; five approaches include biological, ecological, ethnomedical, critical, and applied
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Biological Approach
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approach focusing on evolutionary medicine, with emphasis on biocultural evolution, genetic variation, human vulnerability, and resilience to disease
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Ecological Approach
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approach focusing on human interaction with their environment; expectation of homeostasis in that interaction; the environment includes pathogens and other people
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Ethnomedical Approach
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approach focusing on medical systems and relation between beliefs, health, and healing; biomedicine (modern medicine) is this system; other examples include shaman and tai chi
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Critical Approach
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approach focusing on the impact of macro-level political economic forces on local health conditions and healing systems
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Applied Approach
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approach focusing on clinical and public health setting; analyzing patient-doctor interaction and cross-cultural communication
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Ethnography
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a detailed description of a particular culture primarily based on fieldwork; based on deep knowledge, language competence, and a personal history; involves extended case studies, photographs, quantitative surveys, which are studied after
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Structural Violence
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systematic ways in which social structures harm or otherwise disadvantage indivduals; inequality is a key component; results include the modern day stress response
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Geophagy
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eating earth
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Bioarchaeology
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study of human remains from archaeological sites
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Skeletonized Remains
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preserve where conditions are constant; pH should be higher than neutral; burial goods can influence what preserves and how
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Mummies
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many different types with best preservation for soft tissues in extremely wet, dry, or frozen environments; conditions should be constant; prevents bacteria, chemical, and mechanical weathering
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Violence
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indicated through mortuary treatment, manner of death, and skeletal trauma
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Diet
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indicated through macro and micro fossils, residues, stable isotope analysis, demographics, pathologies, and coprolites
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Stable Isotope Analysis
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analysis of the ratio of stable (nonradioactive) isotopes of elements such as carbon that provides information about ancient diet
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Ritual and Beliefs
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indicated through what they were buried with, archaeothanatlogy, mortuary rituals, relative chronology of articulations, and empty volumes
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Archaeothanatlogy
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how the body was preserved to say how it was buried
