Forensic Anthropology & Archaeology
March 4
Sexual Variation
- Just as morphological variation in humans, we have a fantastic variety of gender and sexual identities and biologies, respectively
- Biological sex is a function of chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and genitals
- Old days: external male genitalia or female genitalia;
- Now: XY (male) or XX (female); Trisomy (XXX, XXY, XYY); Pentasomy (including XXXX, XXYY, XXXXX, XXXXY and XYYYY)
- New days: all kinds of external and internal parts
- Biological sex is incredibly variable and complicated in plants and animals; not just ours
- Gymnopthalmus: Unisexual species: only “girls”, reproducing through parthenogenesis (non-sperm reproduction)
- Seen in hundreds of insect and animal, but not in humans until done so in a lab by accident;
- Sequential hermaphroditism (顺序雌雄同体) - individual changes sex at some point in its life (male to female, female to male, female>hermaphrodite)
- Develop in males first, and when they mature, some become females. If dominant female is removed from group, largest and most dominant male becomes a female (like clownfish)
- Gymnopthalmus: Unisexual species: only “girls”, reproducing through parthenogenesis (non-sperm reproduction)
Medical Anthropology
-
Medical anthropology - a subfield of anthropology that draws upon social, cultural, biological, and linguistic anthropology to better understand those factors which influence health and well being
(broadly defined): experience and distribution of illness; prevention and treatment of sickness; healing processes; social relations of therapy management; cultural importance and utilization of pluralistic medical systems
-
Medical Anthropologists and Applied Anthropology are interested in
- Infectious disease; caused by microbial agent (common flu); co-evolution of humans & pathogens; death rates by infectious disease between developed countries (low) & developing countries (high)
- Pandemics: COVID-19 (likely zoonotic transmission from bats to humans); likely first case in Hubei Province; at least 115 973 916 cases to date; chronic disease: non-reversible pathology (such as heart disease)
-
==Antibiotics== - antimicrobial drug used in treatment and prevention of bacterial infections
-
Antibiotics revolutionized medicine in 20th century, contributing to near eradication of some diseases (some STDs, tuberculosis, etc.)
-
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) - threatens effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses, and fungi
In 2016 an E. coli bacteria “superbug” was identified that is resistant to colistin, “last line of defense” antibiotic in humans
-
-
==Vaccinations== - antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen; ancient technique
10th-17th century Chinese & Indian physicians powdered smallpox scabs to prevent infection: Of children infected, > 80% died from disease;
Widespread immunity due to vaccination and herd immunity is largely responsible for worldwide eradication(根除) of smallpox and restriction of diseases such as polio, measles, and tetanus;
- Anti-vaccination movement - parents (who have been vaccinated) not vaccinating their children due to ignorance (they have no experience with the pathogens) but not lack of intelligence; many have university degrees and equivalent training
-
Nutrition and health
- Malnutrition crisis: developing nations; protein malnutrition; micronutrient malnutrition;
- Obesity crisis: developed nations; complex causes
Forensic Anthropology
A special sub-field of physical anthropology (the study of human remains) that involves applying skeletal analysis and techniques in archaeology to solving criminal cases.
- Forensic anthropology - “applied” science; borrows methods and techniques developed from skeletal biology, osteology, and anatomy; and applies them to cases of forensic importance
- Forensic means “legal”; (not like CSI TV shows)
- Methods and techniques to assess: age, sex, stature, and trauma/pathology
- Apply these methods to unknown modern human remains, with aim of establishing identity or manner of death, practicing forensic application of osteology
- To understand different populations living all over world at different times throughout history
Assessing age in skeletons
-
Younger individual is, more accurately their age can be determined (up to about 25 years)
-
Since process of ossification(骨化) proceeds more rapidly at earlier ages, and there are more developing bones to examine
For example: compare state of appearance, union, or epiphyseal union of bones of an individual’s skeleton to a table, chart, or graphic that tells ages associated with these events
-
Assessing sex in skeletons
- Pronounced difference in shape of pelvis(骨盆). Birth canal larger & rounder in females; males have narrower pelvis, with smaller and less rounded birth canal
Assessing stature(身高) in skeletons
- Sexual dimorphism - males and females differ in body size (females around 85-95% size of males);
- Difference in size is seen in every bone of body, males continue growing longer than females do
- By time people reach age 20, females are ~ 2 years ahead of males in skeletal maturation
Assessing pathology or trauma in skeletons
- Lesion(损伤) - pathologically(病理学上) produced feature of a bone; such as syphilis
- Bone trauma - hole, break, or other traumatic damage
- Overall nature of bone defect, timing of trauma relative to death, and nature of forces that operated on a bone causing certain trauma
- Pre-mortem - defect occurred before death
- Peri-mortem - defect occurred around time of death
- Post-mortem - defect occurred significantly after death