Anthropology.net

Yesterday, there was an article in the New York Times titled, “In Bones, He Sees the Clues From Life” which profiles the work of Dr. Bradley Adams, the forensic anthropologist for the city of New York. According to the city’s chief medical examiner, Adams’ specialty is taphonomy, or figuring out the

“tool marks on dismembered bones,” referring to the practice of examining chips, cuts and other marks on a bone to divine what kind of weapon was used.

His work has been significant, because there is a need for skeletal analysis for identifying remains, in lieu of a plethora of genetic studies. This is especially relevant for indentifying the remains of 9/11 vicitims.

The article goes on to identify Adams ethics behind his work,

When he was a graduate student in Tennessee, Dr. Adams and another student received a call from the police, who had found a skull and bones in the woods. The police told him they were sure it belonged to a woman who had gone missing. They suspected her husband, Dr. Adams recalled.

“We looked down at the skull, and within five seconds told them, ‘This is not the woman you’re looking for,’ ” he said. The skull the officers had found, Dr. Adams determined, belonged to a little girl. “Just to see their faces and how the whole operation changed,” he said. “Calls went out, the F.B.I. got involved and they started gathering information on missing children from the area.” The body turned out to be that of a 7-year-old girl who had been murdered.

Aside from profiling the work of NYC forensic anthropologists, I think the most important factoid from this article is the statement that a, “few big cities have forensic anthropologists on staff.” Anthropology is most oftenly critiqued for its lack of real world jobs, and I think this is a case that refutes that stereotype. Anthropology, specifically forensic anthropology and archaeology, can be used to repatriate artifacts, displaced cultures, and lost or murdered peoples to give understanding and closure to past lives. And for all you college students looking for a potential career in anthropology, what are you waiting for? Be a forensic anthropologist!

P.S. – Dr. Adams also worked on last years facial reconstruction of King Tut!

Boredom on a Friday night makes me embark on epic projects. Tonight, I decided to follow Olduvai George‘s entertaining how-to on digital illustration.

A bit of background though — I’ve drawn all throughout my life, and have taken a science illustration class about two years ago. I’ve illustrated a couple things for one of my professors… but I’ve never embarked into the digital realm, even though I have a Wacom digital drawing tablet. I just never really bothered re-learning how to draw on the computer. And what a mistake that was. With Olduvai George’s motivational how-to and a really sullen night, I think I’ve gotten my feet wet with this new way of drawing.

I generally followed the tutorial linked above, however I deviated on several steps. Olduvai recommends not to use black for shading — oops. I do from time to time in traditional drawings as well… even though it’s a general taboo to do so. Oh well. I also merged all my layers, fitzing with the opacity on my earlier draft layers. I did that because when I draw, I don’t start a whole new drawing on my light sketch lines. I think they add character and sometimes more detail than you can ever get. Also, unlike Olduvai — I did not paint. I don’t like painting much, unless its watercolors. I prefer pencil or pen and ink and shade with cross hatching. So my picture is a bit different from that. I also didn’t complete the picture with a background… oh well. It was my first time.

Anyways, with all this talk, I am sure you wanna see what the hell I am talking about. This is a skull of Australopithecus afarensis that I drew tonight.

I definitely have to practice more, and won’t be quiting my day job any time soon. But, I really am liking this way of drawing more. Its less tiresome in my opinion.

An image of daily village activity of the Surma, from here.

In some sick morbid way, I’ve grown up with Oetzi, a.k.a. “Iceman “  He’s the prehistoric mummy that was found in the Alps back in 1991 by two German hikers. Since then his last meal was figured out, and I remember when there was some controversy over whether he was a human sacrifice or killed in battle. And now, from Afarensis, I receive depressing news that my good friend Oetzi was infertile… and it wasn’t because of the major prolonged shrinkage of being mummified under a glacier.

Rather, according to this BBC News article on his infertility was due to areas of his mtDNA genome that are linked to an increased chance of male infertility. More specifically,

“The team also looked at patterns in Oetzi’s DNA to try to establish more information about his roots.The scientists discovered that he belonged to the K1 subdivision of the haplogroup known as K.

Haplogroups can be described as the branches of the human genealogical tree. Each haplogroup corresponds to early human migrations to the various continents or geographical regions.

K is a comparatively rare haplogroup amongst Europeans, but it has higher frequencies in populations in Ladin in the south of the Alps, and also the Oetzal area to the north.

But Dr Rollo cautioned against the certainty of these results because knowledge of the group’s distribution is still poor and there are only small population samples to compare with it.

The researchers also found that Oetzi belonged to a fourth subcategory of the K1 group that had previously not been seen.”

The scientists wonder that if an “awareness of male infertility in this ancient society” existed along with the “lack of a family or clan could represent a kind of social weakness,” thus giving some sort of reason for wondering if he was sacrificed, or killed, or even just abandoned in the harsh environment of the Alps.

The findings will be published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.