ANT 3260 Forensic Anthropology: From Crime Scene to Laboratory
Forensic Anthropology is the application of the science of biological/physical anthropology and archaeology to legal cases. The course will be an introduction to the recovery and analysis of human remains within the context of unexplained death investigations. The identification of skeletal and other decomposed human remains and knowledge about the circumstances surrounding their death is critical for murder investigations, human rights cases and war crimes. Emphasis will be placed on: 1) the recovery of decomposed human remains in the field or crime scene; and 2) the analysis of these skeletal remains in the laboratory. As such, some of the course will necessarily take place outdoors, learning expert methods of collection of human remains and other accompanying evidence. The laboratory portion of the course will be focused on human osteology, odontology, and forensic pathology in order to compile the life history of an individual (age, sex, stature, disease, trauma, ancestry, etc.) from skeletal remains for identification purposes.
Course Types
Anthropology Elective, Criminal Justice Studies Elective; Public Health Studies Bio concentration