Broader Impact of Archaeological Science Methods in Forensic Science Investigations

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Intersection of Archaeological Science and Forensic Science" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

In 2009, the National Academy of Sciences report on “Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States” emphasized the importance of change needed in forensic science disciplines to ensure reliability, enforceable standards, and to promote best practices. Over the years many archaeologists and bioarchaeologists have assisted law enforcement with the recovery and analysis of human remains on an ad hoc basis with often little or no formal training in forensic anthropology. This presentation will review the value that archaeological science methods can contribute to forensic anthropology as an applied anthropology practice. In recent years, media coverage has highlighted cases where pseudoscience, unethical practices by unqualified individuals, and the unethical treatment of human remains had a negative impact to families, communities, and the discipline. The misidentification of animal remains as human because of a lack of qualifications or promoting the pseudoscience of dowsing rods to locate clandestine graves has lasting consequences in the public perception of what assistance trained forensic anthropologists can offer investigators. In this presentation, I argue that archaeologists who desire to assist in forensic investigations require a deeper understanding and ethical understanding of the broader impact their archaeological science methods have on the forensic anthropology community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Intersection of Archaeological Science and Forensic Science   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39680.0