11/01/2008 12:49:00

Today’s Class
• Who were the main people influential in starting the field?
• How has the field changed over time? What are the major events in
its development?

Ales Hrdlicka (1869 – 1943)

• “silent” contributor
• physical anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution (1903 – 1942)
• did case work for the FBI, but didn’t publish anything
o no lasting record about what information he provided
Ernest Albert hooton (1887 – 1954)
• “silent” contributor
• professor of anthropology at Harvard
• examined forensic cases and trained many students, but did not
publish
Hamann-Todd Collection (Carl A. Hamann, and T. Wingate Todd)
• Cleveland, Ohio
• Collected 2,600 skeletons of known individuals (early 1900s to
about 1940s)
• Used to develop standards used for determination of age,
sex, ancestry, stature
Terry Collection (Robert Terry, and Mildred Trotter)
• St. Louis, Missouri
• Terry takes the cadavers and collects them from classes
• Collected about 1600 skeletons from dissecting room cadavers
• Known age, sex, ancestry
• Trotter helped figure out the stature of a person by the bones
Problems with Collections
• low socio-economic status
 • not representative of the population as a whole
• poor health
• turn of the century
o people are now taller
o healthier
Consolidation Period (1939 – 1971)
• FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin (1939)
o FBI starts working with physical anthropologists. There is more
collaboration.
• The Human Skeleton in Forensic Medicine (1962)
o First forensic anthropology textbook
 he made it more mainstream
World War II
• 1947: Central Identification Laboratory in Hawaii (CILHI) established
o now the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC)
o identification of war dead
o directed by Charles E. Snow, later by Mildred Trotter
 she convinces the government to let her do research on
the soldiers that are deceased and can start developing
standards
 standards for determining stature
Korean War
• Ended in 1953
• Lab established in Japan
o Identification of war dead
• Directed by T. Dale Stewart, researched by Thomas McKern
o Lot of work in aging
o Standards for determining age
T. Dale Stewart
 • Curator, physical anthropology section, Smithsonian institution
• Large influence extending into the modern period
• Essentials of forensic anthropology 1979

Modern Period (1972 - ?)

• 1971: Physical Anthropology Section of AAFS established
• 1977: American Board of Forensic Anthropology is formed
o make sure the people calling themselves anthropologists were
properly trained and had the credentials
William Bass
• Human Osteology: A Laboratory and Field Manual, 1986
• Professor, University of Tennessee
• Started the “Body Farm”
William Maples
• Founder, C.A. Pound Human ID Laboratory, UF
• Human IDE and trauma analysis
• Worked on cases of historical interest
Modern Skeletal Collections
• William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection
o 1981, University of Tennessee
o about 400 known individuals
o much wider range of individuals
• Maxwell Museum’s Documented Skeletal Collection
o 1984, New México
o about 250 known individuals
o all died in the past 25 years

The “4th period” in the New Millennium

• 2000 and beyond
o broadened research goals and new techniques
o international focus
o burgeoning educational programs
o increasing opportunities in non-academic venues