What is Forensic Anthropology?
"Forensic Anthropology involves the application
of principles utilized in the anthropological subfields of archaeology
and physical anthropology to forensic investigations. Archaeological
principles are employed during the search for, recovery, and preservation
of physical evidence at the outdoor scene, and emphasize documentation
of contextual relationships of all evidence to its depositional
environment. Physical anthropological principles are employed
during the laboratory analysis of human remains and focus on reconstruction
of identity and events surrounding and subsequent to death, often
heavily reliant upon contextual data collected at the site."
"[This] revised definition of of forensic anthropology...incorporates
a renewed emphasis on the field data recovery of contextual information
which facilitates subsequent laboratory analysis. We suggest that
the term 'forensic archaeology' be used in reference to data collection
activities carried out during the field recovery aspect of the
entire discipline of forensic anthropology and not as a separate
and distinct enterprise."
-excerpted from the article "The Role of Archaeology
in the Recovery and Interpretation of Human Remains from an Outdoor
Forensic Setting" by Dr. Dennis C. Dirkmaat and Dr. J.M. Adovasio,
featured in Forensic Taphonomy: The Postmortem Fate of Human
Remains, edited by William D. Haglund and Marcela H. Song, copyright
1997, CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, p. 39-64.
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