The Use of Forensic Anthropology Outside the Medico-legal Context: Creating a Historic Biological Profile

The analysis of skeletal remains in the medico-legal context falls in the hands of a forensic anthropologist. The hands on skills that forensic anthropologists learn, and practice, help them to recreate the life and personhood of the deceased. In order to do so, the skeletonized remains of an individual or individuals is examined for characteristics indicative of age-at-death, sex, ancestry, pathology, stature, as well as trauma. This information is used to create a biological profile that can then be given to law enforcement to help identify the individual. There are various types of analyses that can be done to create a biological profile, but the type best suited for each case depends greatly on the conditions of the human remains and the bones that are present. For a complete skeleton that is well preserved the most common methods include the analysis of morphoscopic cranial traits for sex and ancestry characteristics, the analysis of morphoscopic traits of the pelvis for sex characteristics, the measurements of long bones (preferably of the femur or humerus) for stature calculations, and a close examination of the entire skeleton for any evidence of trauma that occurred either before death and is still in the process of healing or that occurred close to the time of death. This research will show how forensic anthropology can be applied to cases outside of the medico-legal context by analyzing the remains of an individual who died and was buried by their family long ago. In Beaverhead County, MT an old unmarked family plot was exhumed on request of a living descendant to find and move a specific family member that he knew to be buried there. When the family plot was excavated however, the remains of three individuals were found. The purpose of this research was to assist in the identification of these individuals so that the living family member may positively identify them. My analysis focused on the remains of just one of the three individuals. These remains were most consistent with those of a female, aged 35-48 years old at the time of her death, who stood between 5’3”-5’7” tall, and showed no signs of trauma. Due to extensive damage of her cranium during excavation, no ancestry could be identified. There were some associated artifacts with her remains which suggest she was buried in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, the most significant artifact for identification being a perfectly preserved pair of dentures. While the creation of biological profiles by forensic anthropologists is normally done in the medico-legal context, this case shows the wider applicability of the field for use in a private context and for use with remains much older than normally analyzed forensically