Forensic Anthropology

Forensic anthropology is the scientific study of human remains within a legal or criminal context. It uses the scientific method to provide reliable, objective, and impartial evidence in order to help identify individuals, establish personal identity, and reveal insight into the circumstances of death. Forensic anthropologists are crucial to the investigation of suspicious death, mass fatality events, and unidentified human remains. They use various methods and techniques to collect and analyze data from human skeletons, teeth and other bones. This data can help identify an individual, provide age estimates and recreate a person’s physical appearance, their ancestry, occupation, and more. Knowledge of the human skeleton, growth and development, trauma recognition and interpretation, and taphonomy are all necessary for a forensic anthropologist to conduct meaningful analysis. Forensic anthropology is an invaluable tool for law enforcement, criminal justice, and anthropology as a whole.