This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The biological profile alone is not always enough to reconstruct individual identity and cause of... more The biological profile alone is not always enough to reconstruct individual identity and cause of death from forensic cases. Ethnographic inquiry of context can be essential, especially for poorly recovered and temporally historic remains. This case study provides an example of the usefulness of ethnographic inquiry in building a contextual reconstruction of identity. For the case at hand, human skeletal remains, minimal clothing, and a rifle were recovered in the 1980\u27s from Albion Idaho. Through standard methods for reconstruction of the biological profile, the individual was identified as a missing male of 30-44 years of age, who disappeared in the winter of 1920. As part of the subsequent investigation, with use of scene photography, analysis of skeletal weathering, and interviews with local ranchers, it was possible to narrow down personal identification and construct a plausible scenario of death. Results of combined skeletal, contextual, and ethnographic data suggest that the individual was a local Ferrier who was unexpectedly trapped during a hunting trip due to a change in weather. Specifically, the individual most likely succumbed to hypothermia and exposure, but only after attempting to start a fire with his rifle, a common yet little known local practice. This case study can demonstrates to both law enforcement and other investigators how important situational and cultural contextual data can become when identifying skeletal remains and cause of death
s for Posters and Presentations at Conferences ___________________ 2014 Kidd, M., Rogers, A., Ing... more s for Posters and Presentations at Conferences ___________________ 2014 Kidd, M., Rogers, A., Inglerhirti, N. Jumonville, B., and Blatt, S.H. In from the cold: Western Bioarchaeology Group. Las Vegas, NV. 2013 Undergraduate Reseach Forum, Boise State University. 2013 Blatt, S.H. The Right Method in the Right Context: Is the Application of a European-Derived Dental Formation Reference Appropriate for Age Estimation of Prehistoric Native American Children? Western Bioarchaeology Group. Berkeley, CA. 2013 Blatt, S.H. An unusual case of a solitary osteochondroma on the mandibular symphysis. Submitted to American Journal of Physical Anthropology (S56):83. 2012 Blatt, S.H. Epidemiology of developmental dysplasia of the hip in Amerindians: Cases from the Late Prehistoric Buffalo Site, West Virginia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 147 (S54):101. 2011 Blatt, S.H. and Casado, A.M. 2011. Let’s talk about sex: principal components analysis of sexually dimorphic traits in the human p...
Page 1. BIOCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF HUMAN DENTAL CALCULUS FROM TWO LATE PREHISTORIC OHIO POPULATI... more Page 1. BIOCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF HUMAN DENTAL CALCULUS FROM TWO LATE PREHISTORIC OHIO POPULATIONS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate ...
The intensification of agriculture often corresponds to an increase in skeletal indicators of phy... more The intensification of agriculture often corresponds to an increase in skeletal indicators of physiological stress and growth disruption relative to hunter-gatherers in similar environments (Cohen and Armelagos, 1984; Cohen, 1989; Steckel and Rose, 2002; Larsen, 2006; Ungar et al., 2017). For example, at Dickson Mounds, Illinois, multiple indicators show increasing levels of nutritional stress and infectious disease with the rise of maize agriculture (Goodman and Armelagos, 1988; Kent 1986). However, this trend is not universal (e.g. Winterhalder and Kennett, 2006). Hutchinson and Larsen (1988) find that stress experiences among Native Americans of St. Catherines Island, Georgia increase in duration over time, despite similarities to previous agriculturalists in maize consumption. The authors argue this is likely due to disease and social changes introduced by the arrival of Spanish missionaries. Therefore, generalizations about the well-being of archaeological populations are not s...
Forensic anthropology is in the midst of its latest reckoning with the concept of ancestry, parti... more Forensic anthropology is in the midst of its latest reckoning with the concept of ancestry, particularly insofar as its role in the development of biological profiles for unidentified decedents and the effects that these estimations have on broader investigative processes. As anthropologists who collaborate with forensic genomics experts, we are interested in considering how debates within anthropological circles might inform-or be informed by-detailed biogeographical ancestry estimates generated as part of forensic genomic analyses. Although such analyses are clearly rooted in the natural sciences, we believe that explorations of what practitioners and the public do with this genomic data-and how this relates to issues of identity-must ultimately be a social science pursuit. In this article, we summarize the history of the race concept in anthropology and contemporary debates about ancestry estimation occurring more specifically among forensic anthropologists. We will also review some of the literature from the emerging field of social science perspectives on genomics and identity.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
The biological profile alone is not always enough to reconstruct individual identity and cause of... more The biological profile alone is not always enough to reconstruct individual identity and cause of death from forensic cases. Ethnographic inquiry of context can be essential, especially for poorly recovered and temporally historic remains. This case study provides an example of the usefulness of ethnographic inquiry in building a contextual reconstruction of identity. For the case at hand, human skeletal remains, minimal clothing, and a rifle were recovered in the 1980\u27s from Albion Idaho. Through standard methods for reconstruction of the biological profile, the individual was identified as a missing male of 30-44 years of age, who disappeared in the winter of 1920. As part of the subsequent investigation, with use of scene photography, analysis of skeletal weathering, and interviews with local ranchers, it was possible to narrow down personal identification and construct a plausible scenario of death. Results of combined skeletal, contextual, and ethnographic data suggest that the individual was a local Ferrier who was unexpectedly trapped during a hunting trip due to a change in weather. Specifically, the individual most likely succumbed to hypothermia and exposure, but only after attempting to start a fire with his rifle, a common yet little known local practice. This case study can demonstrates to both law enforcement and other investigators how important situational and cultural contextual data can become when identifying skeletal remains and cause of death
s for Posters and Presentations at Conferences ___________________ 2014 Kidd, M., Rogers, A., Ing... more s for Posters and Presentations at Conferences ___________________ 2014 Kidd, M., Rogers, A., Inglerhirti, N. Jumonville, B., and Blatt, S.H. In from the cold: Western Bioarchaeology Group. Las Vegas, NV. 2013 Undergraduate Reseach Forum, Boise State University. 2013 Blatt, S.H. The Right Method in the Right Context: Is the Application of a European-Derived Dental Formation Reference Appropriate for Age Estimation of Prehistoric Native American Children? Western Bioarchaeology Group. Berkeley, CA. 2013 Blatt, S.H. An unusual case of a solitary osteochondroma on the mandibular symphysis. Submitted to American Journal of Physical Anthropology (S56):83. 2012 Blatt, S.H. Epidemiology of developmental dysplasia of the hip in Amerindians: Cases from the Late Prehistoric Buffalo Site, West Virginia. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 147 (S54):101. 2011 Blatt, S.H. and Casado, A.M. 2011. Let’s talk about sex: principal components analysis of sexually dimorphic traits in the human p...
Page 1. BIOCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF HUMAN DENTAL CALCULUS FROM TWO LATE PREHISTORIC OHIO POPULATI... more Page 1. BIOCULTURAL IMPLICATIONS OF HUMAN DENTAL CALCULUS FROM TWO LATE PREHISTORIC OHIO POPULATIONS Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate ...
The intensification of agriculture often corresponds to an increase in skeletal indicators of phy... more The intensification of agriculture often corresponds to an increase in skeletal indicators of physiological stress and growth disruption relative to hunter-gatherers in similar environments (Cohen and Armelagos, 1984; Cohen, 1989; Steckel and Rose, 2002; Larsen, 2006; Ungar et al., 2017). For example, at Dickson Mounds, Illinois, multiple indicators show increasing levels of nutritional stress and infectious disease with the rise of maize agriculture (Goodman and Armelagos, 1988; Kent 1986). However, this trend is not universal (e.g. Winterhalder and Kennett, 2006). Hutchinson and Larsen (1988) find that stress experiences among Native Americans of St. Catherines Island, Georgia increase in duration over time, despite similarities to previous agriculturalists in maize consumption. The authors argue this is likely due to disease and social changes introduced by the arrival of Spanish missionaries. Therefore, generalizations about the well-being of archaeological populations are not s...
Forensic anthropology is in the midst of its latest reckoning with the concept of ancestry, parti... more Forensic anthropology is in the midst of its latest reckoning with the concept of ancestry, particularly insofar as its role in the development of biological profiles for unidentified decedents and the effects that these estimations have on broader investigative processes. As anthropologists who collaborate with forensic genomics experts, we are interested in considering how debates within anthropological circles might inform-or be informed by-detailed biogeographical ancestry estimates generated as part of forensic genomic analyses. Although such analyses are clearly rooted in the natural sciences, we believe that explorations of what practitioners and the public do with this genomic data-and how this relates to issues of identity-must ultimately be a social science pursuit. In this article, we summarize the history of the race concept in anthropology and contemporary debates about ancestry estimation occurring more specifically among forensic anthropologists. We will also review some of the literature from the emerging field of social science perspectives on genomics and identity.
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