Forensic Anthropology Essay

The discipline of forensic anthropology arose out of the need to determine and identify the skeletal characteristics of an individual. T.D Stewart (1979) defined forensic anthropology as the “branch of physical anthropology, which, for forensic purposes, deals with the identification of more or less skeletonized remains known to be, or suspected of being, human” (ix). Forensic anthropology is a multidisciplinary that is called upon for their knowledge of the human skeleton biology to be applied to the problems of medical science and the legal system (Işcan, 1988). Since the formalization of physical anthropology in the American Academy of Forensic in 1972, the discipline has made great advancements, particularly in the phenotype of age, sex

During the formative period, the first murder cases were linked to forensic anthropology. In 1849, Jeffries Wyman a Harvard professor of anatomy was involved in a sensational homicide case of his co-workers George Parkman who was murder (Byers, 2002; Schmitt, 2006). A Harvard faculty member John Webster, had failed to make his loan payments to Parkman, murdered Parkman, removed some of his body parts and burnt them in Parkman’s laboratory (Byers, 2002; Schmitt, 2006). Wyman, was called upon to identify the burnt remains to be consistent with Parkman’s known age, height and build (Byers, 2002; Schmitt, 2006). This case is a great demonstration to show the beginning of forensic anthropology used for legal and medical purposes. Coined the father of American forensic anthropology, Thomas Dwight, was trained in anatomy and taught at Harvard, published articles in 1878 and later about the identification of the human skeleton, on the issue of estimation of sex, age at death and stature (Byers, 2002; Schmitt, 2006). He was the first to give a lecture and publish an essay on the human skeletal identification that would drive to the formation of forensic anthropology (Byers, 2002). Additionally, T. Wingate Todd created the Hamann-Todd collection of approximately 1600 of human skeletal remains from 1912-1938, which has heavily determined ancestry, sex, age and stature research (Byers, 2002; Stewart,