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Body Donation: Opinions and Practices in Forensic Anthropology
No full textWithin forensic anthropology, skeletal donations are an indispensable resource for study and research. The creation, collection, and maintenance of skeletal materials have become integral to many anthropology programs, but no protocols specific to forensic anthropology have been established for the management and curation of a donor skeletal collection. Therefore, to assess the need for standardization of body donation in anthropology, two surveys were sent to the greater forensic anthropology community to investigate (a) opinions and (b) practices regarding body donation procedures and use of skeletal remains for teaching and research. There were 105 respondents to the Opinions survey and 36 respondents to the Practices survey. Results of the Opinions survey indicate most respondents agree with the use of donations for teaching and research, but there is disagreement on the ethicality of donation procurement, use, and disposition, especially in cases of unclaimed or unidentified remains. Results of the Practices survey demonstrate the variability in procurement, curation, and use of donors across different programs, including the types of donations accepted, disposition options, forms used for donations, information collected, reasons for not accepting donors, skeletonization practices for fleshed individuals, and the use and consent of donors in imaging, taphonomy, trauma, and other transformative research. Comparing these surveys reveals areas where body donation practices match the opinions of the forensic anthropology community and where improvement is needed. The results from both surveys were used to provide suggestions to aid in the creation of standardized protocols and best practices for body donation in forensic anthropology
Excavation, Archaeological Context, and Historical Background of the Nineteenth-Century Winchester Anatomized Site, Massachusetts
No full textIn November 2020, an unmarked deposit of mostly disarticulated human remains was accidentally uncovered and partially dispersed by heavy machinery during house foundation excavation in Winchester, Massachusetts, United States. An excavation of the deposit was carried out by the Massachusetts Historical Commission and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, with participation by interns from the Boston University School of Medicine, Forensic Anthropology Program. The deposit was in a square feature, 2.0 m north–south, 2.1 m east–west, and ~2.0 m below the former ground surface, and it contained a Minimum Number of Individuals of 35 adult humans, 11 juvenile humans, and 40 nonhuman specimens, along with laboratory ware and ceramics dating the deposit to as early as the 1850s. This deposit is most consistent with former anatomical and surgical training (i.e., “anatomized”) remains, having large amounts of sawing and other sharp-force trauma. To date, the remains cannot be linked to any individual or institution, but they likely derive from a medical or anatomical program in the area. The present article details the excavation of this site, its depositional context, and historical background, with comparison to similar sites
Nonhuman Remains from the Winchester Anatomized Site, Massachusetts
No full textThe present research examined the nonhuman skeletal remains associated with anatomized human skeletal remains from a burial site in Winchester, Massachusetts. Other sites have indicated the use of animals for anatomical teaching, including remains found at the anatomized sites of Holden Chapel, Point San Jose, Ashmolean Museum, London Hospital Burial, and Medical College of Georgia. The nonhuman assemblage consisted of 1444 nonhuman remains, making up 9.5% of the total identified Winchester Site skeletal assemblage. The nonhuman assemblage had a total minimum number of individuals (MNI) of 40, including invertebrates. The most represented species were dog (Canis familiaris), cat (Felis catus), and brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). The assemblage also included cattle (Bos taurus), pig (Sus scrofa), sheep/goat (Ovis aries/Capra hircus), macaque (Macaca sp.), European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus), chicken (Gallus gallus), turtle (Testudines), and oyster (Crassostrea sp.). Taphonomic effects from the burial included green copper oxide staining, brown soil staining, and adhering plant roots, and sharp-force trauma (sawing) was present on 1.1% of the remains. The identified species were in some cases likely food remains, with macaque, turtle, cat, and dog likely used for comparative anatomy training. Unknown human remains from anatomized sites can come into the medicolegal system through accidental discovery, and forensic anthropologists must be able to determine their origin through a variety of analyses, including the examination of any accompanying nonhuman remains that also may have been used for anatomical training
Matters of Mentorship/Mentorship Matters: Matters of Mentorship/Mentorship Matters
No full textEditors' Introduction to Volume 8 issue
Skrabut, Kristin. Unruly Domestication: Poverty, Family, and Statecraft in Urban Peru.
No full textSkrabut, Kristin. Unruly Domestication: Poverty, Family, and Statecraft in Urban Peru. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2024
Politics of the State and Urbanization Rescaling in Contemporary Iran (from 1789 to 2023)
No full textThis article, following the theory of new state spaces and its terminology, explains the politics of the state and urbanization rescaling in Iran over three historical-political periods of 1789–1925, 1925–1979, and 1979–2023. The spatial-political projects promoted during 1789–1925 focused on scalar centralization and territorial customization of the state and urbanization. These projects shifted into scalar centralization and territorial uniformity during 1925–1979 and 1979–2023. These periods exhibit significant variation in their spatial-economic strategies and outcomes. The strategies of territorial equalization and scalar singularity at the regional scale were fostered to facilitate capital accumulation between 1789 and 1925. The second period shifted toward the strategies of territorial polarization and scalar singularity at the national level, and the third period followed the territorial equalization and scalar singularity on a national level
Rosas, Gilberto, and Mireya Loza (eds.). The Border Reader
No full textReview of: Rosas, Gilberto, and Mireya Loza (eds.). The Border Reader. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2023
Stephenson, Marcia. Llamas beyond the Andes: Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World
No full textReview of: Stephenson, Marcia. Llamas beyond the Andes: Untold Histories of Camelids in the Modern World. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2023
Calculation and Interpretation of Inter-laboratory Variation in Isotope Delta (δ) Values Using Real Interpretative Differences
No full textBuilding on applications in anthropology, the use of stable isotope ratio analysis of human bone collagen to investigate anindividual’s life history is becoming more commonplace in the forensic science community. Careful consideration of the resultant isotope delta (δ) values, particularly in regard to their accuracy and reliability, is paramount when introducing isotope data into the U.S. court system. In this study, we use a simple framework to calculate real interpretative difference (RID) values for collagen (“col”) and assess isotope data comparability for sample analysis (RIDanalysis) as well as sample preparation/analysis combined (RIDcombined). The RIDcombined values of 0.59‰ for δ13Ccol and 0.91‰ for δ15Ncol are similar to more complex, published calculations of inter-laboratory variability in the stable isotope analysis of skeletal remains, but they are easier to calculate and intuitively elegant. The RIDcombined as well as RIDanalysis values presented here allow users to examine multiple sources of inter-laboratory isotopic variation (preparation, analysis, and both together) in a two-step process whereby a RID value is constructed and then tested. Implementation of this RID approach will provide surety for the legal and research communities in forensic applications of stable isotope ratio analysis
Considerations for Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Hair: The Impact of Postmortem Environmental Exposure
No full textStable isotope analysis of postmortem hair is performed in order to make inferences about an individual’s diet and geographictravel history prior to death. During analysis and interpretation, investigators assume that the hair collected from a postmortemenvironment has not been altered by exposure conditions and that the isotopic “signatures” of hair prior to exposure are preserved in postmortem samples. In order to confidently make inferences from postmortem hair samples, it is necessary to know whether their isotope ratios undergo postmortem changes. To address this question, post-exposure hair samples (n = 44) were collected from known body donors at the Anthropology Research Facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, USA, at various time points ranging from 22 to 1,140 days of exposure. These samples were analyzed for carbon (δ13C), nitrogen (δ15N), hydrogen (δ2H), and oxygen (δ18O) isotope ratios, and the results were compared with pre-exposure hair samples collected from the same donors. This study highlights considerations for the interpretation of isotope ratios obtained from postmortem hair samples in forensic contexts. The results indicate that δ13C, δ15N, and δ18O values from human hair remain relatively consistent over periods up to three years of outdoor exposure, while δ2H values changed significantly between pre-and post-exposure hair samples