Free Anthropology Essays
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Essay on the materials forensic anthropologists and the police treat as evidence within their investigative work.
Introduction
Forensic science is science used for the purpose of the law, and thus any branch of science used in the resolution of legal disputes falls under the mantle of forensic science (Genge, 2003). This broad definition covers criminal prosecutions in the widest sense, including consumer and environmental protection and health and safety at work, as well as civil proceedings such as breach of contract and negligence.
A police officer investigating an incident will seek clarification of three issues: whether a crime has been committed; who the responsible parties are; and whether there is enough evidence to charge the responsible person and proceed to a successful prosecution (Fisher, 1992; Osterburg and Ward, 2000). This clarification is seldom the isolated responsibility of one officer, and any consequential trial will require the involvement of the specialist police officers and civilian staff. Forensic science, and the evidence it can interpret, can be expected to make a contribution to the clarification of all three issues.…
Essay on the range of practical matters that the forensic anthropologist would examine when attempting to identify human remains.
Introduction
Anthropology is the study of humankind, culturally and physically, in all times and places. Forensic Anthropology is the application of anthropological knowledge and techniques in a legal context (Hunter, 1996b). This involves detailed knowledge of osteology, anatomy, and to a lesser degree pathology, to aid in the identification and cause of death of skeletal and severely decomposed human remains. The application of forensic anthropology is specifically useful when human remains are extremely difficult for the medico-legal team to identify, and these remains are often a result of decomposition, dismemberment, severe burning and charring, and submersion in water for prolonged periods (Haglund and Sorg, 1996 and 2001).…
Essay on Van Gennep’s stages and understanding a rite of passage in relationship to one or more rituals.
Wittgenstein (1987, p.14, Chapter I. Introduction) set a large challenge for anthropology that has yet to be taken up. After reading the Golden Bough, he argues that Fraser made a crucial mistake by trying to deduce what things mean. He accused Fraser of not understanding that practices signify nothing but themselves, and that the extent of anthropology could be to delimit and work out the practical structure of such tasks. For the past fifty years or so, anthropology has largely ignored Wittgenstein’s remarks and has built an anthropology that privileges the observer. It privileges the observer because it is only the observer who can read into phenomenon their underlying socio-cultural meaning. It is precisely this sort of reifying reductionism that we find in Van Gennep’s (1909) theory of the rite of passage. …
Essay on the primitive hut in relation to theories of social organisation.
The ‘primitive’ hut has been a source of fascination across the disciplines for many years, and formed a fundamental part of the aesthetic traditions in nineteenth century Europe, beginning with the works by Papworth romanticising the rustic, and reaching a peak in the Arts and Crafts period where writings such as those of John Ruskin lauded the handmade nature of the rustic unit. Discussing the ‘primitive’ hut is possible between the disciplines, the architectural approach such as that taken by Rykwert being one side, and the anthropological analysis of Bordieu being the other. …
Essay on ‘shamanic healing’. To what extent are illness culturally determined?
Introduction
Illness is a word. The physical significations to which we attach the word would go unheard; we would suffer in silence, unless we had the ability to call forth a name and bring these physical conditions into the social world. Thus, the latter question posed in the title has an implicit, problematic postulate. It assumes that we can work out the extent to which a category relies on objective, natural events and the extent to which it relies on cultural constructions. The existence of an empirical reality that a category like illness speaks about is not relevant to the nature of a category. All categories refer to a world (that which is signified). However, they only ever gain meaning as a constellation of signs in relation to other signs (Saussure: 1995: 12). Thus the category illness is always a socio-cultural category: gaining meaning when placed in the constellation of words such as health, and emerging, in each culture, within a specific historical trajectory. As the word illness is always culturally determined, what is determined as illness will necessarily be culturally determined. …
