Analytical Essay on Study of Skeleton in Forensic Anthropology

Forensic Anthropology is the discovery and analysis of human remains for medicolegal (medical investigators e.g. the coroner) reasons resulting from unexplained deaths, this involves establishing identity from a range of cases including mass disasters within the role of the anthropologist’s investigation of the skeletal remains is to create a biological profile of the deceased which includes ancestry, sex, age at death and stature, (Royal Anthropological institute, 2019). This essay will concentrate on the aspect of sex.

(Lundy 1998) suggests that the most common situation of skeletal remains being found is the surface scatter this occurs when the body has been dumped on the ground and the remains has been scattered by animals over a large area.

Sex estimation is the process of assessing whether skeletal remains are biologically male or female, sex is pivotal in establishing an accurate biological profile as sex influences the analysis of other elements within the biological profile e.g. stature and age. Sex estimation is based on the idea that the female and male morphology is different in both size and shape, this is known as dimorphism, (Langley and Dudzik, 2016). Sexual dimorphism is highly dependable on the population this is due to humans being extremely varied in terms of size so therefore it is recommended that population specific methods are used when available to do so, (Kimmerie, Tise, and Humphries, 2012).

People are sexually dimorphic this provides us with the knowledge that male and females are both physically different in terms of both the size, shape and density of the bones, (White, 2016). White (2016) also suggests that due to men having the hormone testosterone during their growth and this tends to lead to males being more larger on average than females.

Morphoscopic (Non Metric) analysis is the visual qualitative assessment (of the innominate) that is used to estimate the features of unknown skeletal remains. This allows the anthropologist to determine by way of visual inspection if the remains are that of a male or female, using this information and based on the fact females have evolved for the adaptation with the unique function to cope with the stress and strains of childbirth owing to this information this make the pelvic region the most sexually dimorphic region of the human skeleton, (Christensen, A, M and Passalacqua, N, V, 2018).

Harrison and Simmons (2016) states that the pelvis consists of two Innominate one right and one left and the sacrum however, the innominate is made up of three separate bones the ilium, ischium and the pubis these fuse together during the onset of puberty (sometime after the twelfth year of life) and the female pelvis has many different features to that of the male.

Byers, (2017) points out the “classic traits of the male versus the female pelvis are the male is large and rugged in size than that of the female which is small and gracile, the Ilium is high and vertical in males and it is low and flat in females the pelvic inlet is heart shaped in males whereas it is circular or elliptical in females the pubic shape is narrow and rectangular in males and broad and square the subpubic angle is v shaped in males and u shaped in females (Harrison and Simmons, (2016) states that this has a 95 per cent success rate to estimate sex by itself) the greater sciatic notch is narrow in males and wide in females (Harrison however states that this has a 75 per cent success rate to estimate sex by itself) and finally the shape of the sacrum is long and narrow in males and short and broad in females”

For those unknown remains that have completed skeletal adulthood the estimation of sex is reliable this is reflected by reaching approximately 98 per cent accuracy if the remains are complete and in a good condition, Nevertheless, the skeletal features are not differentiated and cannot always be placed into two classifications as the traits exist from extremely feminine somewhere in the middle to extremely masculine, it is standard practice to measure the traits on an ordinal scale ranging from one to five so for the estimation of sex five groups will be used “Female, Probable Female Intermediate, Probable Male and finally Male”, (Future Learn,2019 and Kimmerie and Tise, 2012).

White and Folkens (2005) indicate that the most reliable method to be used when using the pelvis is the Phenice method, this uses just three components the ventral arc, subpubic concavity and the medial aspect of the ischiopubic ramus and this ranges from 96 to 100 per cent accurate conversely, this method should only be used for fully matured adults.

Austin and King, (2016) state that if the pelvis is unavailable as it was not recovered than the second best to used is the cranium and the mandible, white (2016) suggests that this method is 85-90 per cent accurate. However, these features that prove helpful in the estimation of sex do vary among ancestral groups. The characteristics of male and female skulls are “Size Large and rugged in males and small and smooth in females, Mastoid large, projecting in males and small, non-projecting in females Brow ridges large in males and small or none in females, frontal slanted in males and high and rounded in females, Nuchal area rugged with hook in males and smooth, hook uncommon in females, supraorbital margin rounded in males and sharp in females and finally the chin broad in males and pointed in females”. (Byers,2017 and Identification of skeletal remains 2010).

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The bone pathology used by forensic anthropologists and its interpretations can aid in the identification of unknown skeletal remains by studying diseases that leave behind traces on bones after death, although this can also provide an understanding into the cause and manor of death, (Cunha, n.d). There are a number of disorders that can affect the skeleton and they are placed into general groupings, the groups are “infectious diseases, circulatory disturbances, hematopoietic disorders, metabolic disorders, endocrine disturbances, congenital abnormalities of the skeleton, skeletal dysplasias, degenerative diseases and trauma”, (Ortner, 2003). An example of a disease is Paget’s Disease this effects the bones by disrupting the normal cycle of bone renewal causing them to become enlarged and soft and occasionally causing them to break other affects are bowed legs, the spine to curve to the side (Scoliosis) and the upper back to become hunched (Kyphosis). This can affect most of the bones in the human body mainly affecting the femur, pelvis and the skull. Paget’s disease is extremely common in the United Kingdom however, this is found mainly in men above the age of 40 and it is believed to affect at least three per cent of men in that age group, (NHS, 2019).

Trauma can affect and pose new challenges in the creation of a biological profile of skeletal remains. Also the environment that the body is found can have an effect on the biological profile. Thermal Trauma and the Black Saturday in Australia in 2009 is an example of how this affects the profile, the fire created 145 scenes over 1500 square miles. This type of trauma removes water from the remains, colour change, splitting, shrinkage and warping. The warping removes the possibility of using metric methods however you may still be able to use morphoscopic methods, (Love and Wiersema, 2016). Skeletal remains act differently depending on the environment they are in for example the taphonomic modification in water may cause the skeleton to dissolve this is down to the chemical changes therefore leaving no remains to be estimated for sex, also the provides the organisms with the opportunity to feed from the body creating the possibility of spreading the remains over a large distance this also works on land, (Parsons and Brett, 1991).

The Juvenile skeleton provides one of the most widely debated topics on the estimation of sex with any amount of confidence in the reliability. Also the sexually dimorphic characteristics of the pelvis and skull will not be apparent in the juvenile skeleton until puberty, (Scheuer and Black, 2004). Beattie (1982) also suggest that the chemical differences that occur in juveniles between male and female are very different these include levels of calcium and phosphorus are an indicator of sex however the drawback is that these also do not occur at the age of reproduction, however, Scheuer and Black (2004) also point out that male and females both mature at different times and at different rates. Despite this both Scheuer and Black (2004) and Lewis (2007) have stated that the “Morphological characteristics of the pelvis including the greater sciatic notch and the subpubic angle that shows that sexual dimorphism does exist from a young age”. Byers (2017) suggests that even with the success rate of estimation of sex of juveniles is 70 per cent most anthropologists do not want to provide the profile as the percentage has a 20 per cent chance of an unsuccessful biological profile of sex and is likely not to be acted upon by law officials in a search for missing children.

Lewis (2007) does however, suggest that there is another method that can be used to determine the sex of a juvenile skeleton, this method is the use of measurements (metric analysis) of the deciduous dentition these measurements indicate the teeth of boys are generally larger than those of girls. By providing the widths and lengths of the teeth however, “this was only accurate 64 per cent to 68 per cent of the time, this was conducted by T, K, Black in 1978, but the study of Carol de vito and Shelley Saunders in 1990 they found this was accurate 76 per cent to 90 per cent of the time”. These cases show that most methods used to determine sex of juveniles are just not accurate enough to be used in forensic cases, (Byers, 2017).

Kimmerie, et al (2012) states that the use of metric analysis is pivotal to forensic anthropology. The use of metric data provides sex estimations with enough data which allows the “statistically quantified classification and error rates to be used in research and court room evidence”.

metric data is able to be used to estimate sex. The metric analysis for sex and ancestry typically has a lower error rate than the use of morphological methods alone.

There are many factors that can affect the determination of sex in juveniles just as in adults. There are many diseases that can affect the bones for example congenital Disorders that are present of birth. Aufderheide, and Rodriguez-Martin 1998 state “that many of these anomalies affect the skeleton. Cunha (n.d) provides a small sample of cranial or craniofacial leasions that can be detected and these are congenital defects on the skull and spine, hyperplasias of the members, and congenital dislocation of the hip.

As seen in adults Paget’s disease this can also be found the juvenile this is called “Juvenile Paget disease and affects the bone growth and appears in infancy or early childhood.as the child grows they become weaker and more misshapen. This bone disease affects all the bones of the skeleton and shows all the same features as seen in the adults however, the long bones are also highly affected causing them to bow and fracture easily this can have a long term effect on the ability to stand and walk, the misshapen features of the bones will make it difficult to determine sex using metric measurement thus solely relying on Morphoscopic features alone, (Genetics Home Reference 2019).

There are also other diseases that can be found in juveniles, of which can help determine that you are dealing with skeletal remains from a past population, two such of these are scurvy and rickets and are due to a serve lack of vitamins C and D respectively, these are highly associated with the well-known marks left on the skeleton, these diseases are found in places with high malnutrition foe example Africa, (Cunha, n.d). Walden (1991 P24)

“The underlying assumption that is inherent in any attempt to use death assemblage to predict something about the living is that the dead population is representative- or at least typical- of the live population. Given all the non-random events that surround death and burial, not to mention preservation and recovery, this is at best an approximation, and at worst the two (the live and the dead) bear no epidemiological relation to each other whatsoever. However, it is clearly important to know where on this spectrum a particular group, or set of groups, lies, especially if the data derived from their study are to be used to construct life tables, to make inferences about changing patterns in disease or dietary habits, or to draw any of the other demographic conclusions that are so commonly bandied about”.

It is clear that the use of forensic anthropology is a highly underappreciated science, however, their role within all forensic cases is just as important as any other role within the investigation. Without the wealth of knowledge that the forensic anthropologist has to offer in cases where the only evidence is the human remains. It would prove extremely difficult in producing a biological profile of skeletal remains or those that have been involved in mass disasters without this knowledge. The forensic anthropologist has enabled the use of metric data to be used alongside morphological methods, they are the key to reading and placing back together the puzzle of what happened to that person and to provide the family with the answers that only they have the ability unlock.