Forensic Anthropology Day 2014!

I was super fortunate this year to be part of event put on by a PhD student at the University of Victoria and Let’s Talk Science: Forensic Anthropology Day! The day was basically a chance for high school students to come out and experience some of the things a real forensic anthropologist encounters in his/her job. It is a great opportunity for these students to gets some hands on learning experience about a potential career field that might interest them. As someone who didn’t discover the amazing world of osteology until late in my university career, I wholeheartedly support this kind of event that allows students to explore career options in a fun but realistic manner (ie. Real forensic anthropology is not like CSI or Bones).

Team 'Never Lose'

Processing the scene

The students started the day with a case briefing in which they had to record pertinent details of the fabricated case. They then worked as a team to determine where the best place to search for the missing individual was based on this information. Once a search plan had been made we got them suited up in Tyvek and duct tape (they loved this part) before heading out to process a crime scene.

At the scene they worked as a group to gather evidence while ensuring all the appropriate protocols were being observed. The group also had to learn to communicate effectively with police, civilians and our faunal and ballistics experts on the scene. Once the evidence bagged and tagged we headed indoors to do a taphonomy activity and a grave mapping activity. We ended the day with a debrief explaining how the evidence they collected assisted the police in solving the case.

Taphonomy

Grave Mapping

Overall it was an exhausting but highly satisfying day! Forensic Anthropology Day proved to be a valuable learning experience for the participants and the leaders alike. I would like to say a huge thank you to Stephanie Calce and Let’s Talk Science for putting the event together. I definitely want to put on an Osteoarchaeology Day sometime, obviously I will need to come up with a better name for it first :).

All photos courtesy of Stephanie Calce

'The Vampire Problem'

Photo from excavation website: http://ow.ly/wHrHT 

I have been telling myself I am going to resurrect my blog (and post regularly) for some time now and continually finding reasons why I am too busy to write something today, or this week or… you get the picture. Yesterday’s headlines finally inspired me to get back in action! “'Vampire' Skeleton Unearthed in Poland”. I mean, who doesn’t love a good vampire story?? The article intrigued me because I am very interested in ‘deviant burials’ or individuals who are treated ‘counter to’ or ‘outside of’ ‘normal’ (predominant) burial traditions of the time/culture/area/population. Enough air quotes for ya?

My excessive use of air quotes exemplifies what I like to think of as ‘The Vampire Problem’ or the difficulties surrounding reconstructing cultural ideologies from physical remains. Unfortunately, it is incredibly hard to say for sure whether or not a particular burial is ‘deviant’ because you need a good deal of evidence to create a clear picture of ‘the norm’ before you can determine what is outside that norm. A key tenant in human behaviour and culture is variation. So how do you determine what is normal variation and what isn’t? You gather a lot of data. So next time you're reading a news story on archaeological discovery pay attention to sample size. Is your sample 3 individuals or 300? 

Once you have established a baseline of what would be considered normal for a certain time/culture/area/population (or even sub-population) it becomes even more difficult! Many burial rituals associated with deviancy apply to more than one category of ‘deviant’. For example decapitation can signify criminals, execution victims (criminal or not), Vampires, etc. (read more on cool skeletal trauma here). How do you determine what category of deviancy your sample reflects? Context is key. Think about the historical sources of evidence available (or presented in the article) and think about the additional sources of archaeological evidence such as location, relationship to other burials, and orientation of the burial which provide clues to burial context.

Hopefully I have not discouraged you too much yet! While difficult, re-constructing cultural ideologies (or solving the Vampire Problem) is not impossible. Through meticulous research not only of the bodies themselves but also of the historical evidence around cultural practices and beliefs, one can make a case for a burial in a certain manner signifying a certain thing (ie. Decapitated criminal, vampire, etc.). Like any scientist, we gather evidence and then create a hypothesis to explain that evidence. So next time you click on that Vampire headline make sure you put on your critical scientist hat (or perhaps your deerstalker) and really think about the evidence presented and the conclusions reached.