Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Forensic Anthropology historical timeline
151
Sadaree Archjananun (Mook)
FSC300
SUID: 664056915
Forensic Anthropology Timeline
1800-1938
The Formative Period
The Formative Period
The Formative age is first phase of forensic anthropology. The period occured between the early 1800s and ended in 1938. The field was relatively new at this point and there were not many forensic anthropologists, but they were rather anatomists. Techniques are not advanced yet and a few techniques are carried out to be used in today's world
Forensic scientists + Cases
Father of Forensic Anthropology: Thomas Dwight
- He brought this field into the United States, and gave lectures along with writing articles
- Introduced techniques for identifying age, height and gender from the sternum
- Published articles on how to identigy human skeleton
Forensic Anthropologists
Credited collections
Collections
- These collections contains various bones and skeletal collections that allows us to study and understand human structures
- These collections serves as standards when identifying skeletons and bones
T. Wingate Todd
- Between 1914-1965, they collected up to 1636 human skeletons
- Most were obtained from dissecting-room cadavers, with known age, gender and ancestry
- Currently in the Smithsonian Institution (and used to aid human skeletan research)
T. Wingate Todd
Robert J. Terry + Mildred Trotter (his successor)
- Between 1914-1965, they collected up to 1636 human skeletons
- Most were obtained from dissecting-room cadavers, with known age, gender and ancestry
- Currently in the Smithsonian Institution (and used to aid human skeletan research)
- Also aids in standardizing human skeleton
Robert J. Terry + Mildred Trotter
The Parkman-Webster murder 1849
- The beginning of forensic anthropology could be traced back to this murder
- Two Harvard's anatomy professor was called in to solve this case: Oliver Wendell Holmes the First + Jeffries Wyman
- A burnt head (Dr.Parkman's) was found inside a furnance along with a dismembered body that was left in a septic tank inside an anatomy lab
- from this case Wyman and Holmes were able to demonstrate many effictive methods that are used in forensic anthropology nowadays
Cases
The Leutgert case of 1897
- The case was highly publicized
- Mr.Leutgert suspected for murdering his wife (Louisa)
- Her body was placed at his sausage factory
- Body was dissolved leaving a jelly-like materials, a few (four) tiny remains of bones, and her ring
- George A Dorsey was requested to work on this case and identify the body
- Dorsey was an anthropologist who was able to identify that the four pieces of bones (from her ribs, hands and foot) belonged to Louisa Dorsey
Anthropologists involved
- Although the evident Dorsey found would not meet the required rigor in order to pass in current day court
- He was able to convict Mr.Leutgert for the murder of his own wife
- Dorsey was publicly critisized to the pointed he never consulted a criminal case again
Results of the case
The Ruxton case
- Two women went missing: Isabella Van Ess and Mary Rogerson
- Isabella Van Ess is Dr.Ruxton's common law wife and Mary Rogerson (her personal maid)
- Around the time these two went missing, there were an odor complain at the Ruxton residence
- Dr. Ruxton rented a car and gave a statement that they went on vacation
- Later, a "dismembered, mutilated and decomposed bodies of two person were recovered from a gully in Scotland" (https://cheshireanthropology.wordpress.com)
- Like the parkman muder, the job was not done by a forensic anthropologist, but rather the methods used in solving this case is still useful in today's forensic anthropology field.
- Images of when they were alive and of them when they were dead were then compared whcih reveals many similarities of Isabella and Mary Rogerson
The Ruxton case
Consolidation Period 1939-1971
When Wilton Marion Krogman published the Guide to the Identification of Human Skeletal Material in 1930 that marks the ending of the Formation period, fully transitioning to the Consolidation Period
The Consolidation Period
Wilton Marion Krogman
- Krogman became one of the most important figures during the Consolidation period
- He published many works and books that are still used today to provide basis in features of the skeletal systems
Forensic Anthropologists + their works
Krogman's work
Guide to the Identification of Human Skeletal Material published in 1939 is now used as a pamplet by the FBI, it contains what is known of the skeletal system at that point in time
The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine published in 1962 and it's second edition with (M.Y. Iscan) was the first work that was fully dedicated and used in the forensic field to understand human bones
Krogman's work
Events that characterized the Consolidation period
Events
- Unfortunately many Wars like The Korean War and the WWI resulted in many deaths and unidentified bodies
- Those bodies are collected and studied in order to give us insights about the human bone anatomy
- The Smithsonian Institution kept many skeletal subjects and T. Dale Stewart was responsible for releasing what is known about the human skeleton through his works and publications
World War II
World War I
- After world War II, many unidentified bodies were found or left on the field for a while
- Because of the war environment which made it hard to collect bodies, many started to decompose and made identifying the body very difficult
- Later on the Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI) was established and had Charles E. Snow as its director.
The Korean war
- What happened with the Korean war was very similar to what happened for WWII
-Many soldiers' bodies were left decomposed because the war environment made it difficult to collect the bodies
- The US Army finally established an identification lab in Japan and hired T. Dale Stewart as the director
- Thomas McKern who also worked at the lab studied how to determine age from the skeletal structures of deceased soldiers
- McKern and Stewart published Skeletal Age Changes in Young American males in 1957
- The book still used today as standards for issueing age of death
The Korean War
Stewart and the Smithsonian Lab (and other institutions/organization)
T. Dale Stewart + Smithsonian Institution
- T. Dale Stewart worked at the Smithsonian lab and during his time there he contributed to the forensic anthropology field by publishing various articles on skeletal identification
- Organized many seminars over the course of 20 years on skeletal identification
- He was significantly dedicated to improving the field
- Worked with Mildred Trotter to convince the US army to allow body remains from WWII and the Korean war to be used for research
MODERN PERIOD
1972-present
- We are currently in the Modern Period
- The main characteristic of this period is the fact that many organizations were formed
- These organizations work to improve to field by setting standards and organization techniques
- A group of forensic anthropologists finally formed and made discussions and consultations possible
The Modern Period
With these organizations (as a result of forensic anthropologists meeting up) and the program Fordisc, future generations have easier access to skeletal records and an aid to identifying gender and acestry digitally
ADVANCES + ORGANIZATIONS
Influential work
- The most influential work in this period was the works of T. Dale Stewart again
- In 1979 he published Essentials of Forensic Anthropology
Influential works
Organizations and groups
Organizations
- in 1972 a section of the Physical Anthropology Section in the AAFS (American academic of forensics science) met for the first time
- The founders of this organization: Clyde Collins Snow + Ellis R. Kerley
- They were able to recruit enough of their colleages who were also interested
- In 1977 the ABFA (American Board of Forensic Anthropology) was established to create standards for this field in the United States, Canada (and their territories)
- There are amonst 400 members (in 2011) that are board certified (in the AAFS) and 70 FA diplomats
- The Forensic Anthropology Data Bank located at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville was establoshed
- Lastly, the SWGANTH (Scientific Working Group for Forensic Anthropology was established
DATA BANKS 1986
- Since more information became accessible, forensic anthropologists realized that modern skeletons began to deviate from those at the Terry and Todd collections
- Modern skeletons are also different than those of soldiers from WWII and the Korean war
- Right now the Physical Anthropology section of the AAFS is trying to create a database to record and keep track of modern skeletons
- The production of the program Fordisc allows forensic anthropologists to calculate gender and acestry from exisiting bone collections
- The collection is still growing till today and is will expand to future generations