I. Short Answer. Consider that you are providing explanations for law enforcement officials and attorneys who will be handling these cases. Remember that they are anxious for you to be as specific as possible. 5 points each.
1. For the following description, determine the most probable race of the individual. Provide a description of why you made each determination and how accurate you feel about your assessment.
Long, narrow face
Long, large skull morphology
Narrow cranial breadth
Long cranial length
small to medium parietal bossing
narrow facial breadth
angular orbits
low nasal root with little or no depression
troughed inferior nasal spine
no nasal sill
slight, retreating zygomatic arches
narrow to medium palate
narrow nasal breadth
wide interorbital breadth
2. The following skeletal elements are presented to you. What is the probable sex and age of this individual? Why?
| Bone | Epiphyseal Fusion |
| Right ulna | proximal epiphysis fused, distal epiphysis unfused |
| Left humerus | distal epiphysis fused, proximal epiphysis unfused |
| right hamate and capitate | present (these are bones of the wrist) |
| Left innominate | ischial tuberosity (bump on the bottom of the ischium) fusion not yet begun, iliac crest fusion not yet begun, acetabulum (facet where femur articulates) fused |
| Right femur | distal femur unfused, frmoral head unfused, greater trochanter (bump under head) fusing |
| Right clavicle | Medial epiphysis unfused |
3. For the following set of illustrations, determine the most probable sex of the individuals. Provide a description of why you made each determination and how accurate you feel about your assessment.
4. Fill in the blanks with proper directional terminology.
II. Essay. Choose two of the following questions (20 points):
1. The term "race" is one which is
highly charged in our current social context. Using the readings and the
lecture material, discuss the use of racial typologies in forensic anthropology.
Discuss how you anticipate dealing with this issue and justify your decision.
2. Sex, age, ancestry and stature have been presented as separate topics in this course. Discuss how easily separated these topics are in developing the biological profile of an individual. Use information and examples from lecture and the readings to justify your answer.
3. Each time you, as a forensic anthropologist, are responsible for investigating a report of possible skeletal remains, you know you will be facing a situation with many unknowns. What information will you ask yourself and law enforcement officials to determine if this is a forensic case, and why? How would you go about identifying the individual?
4. Discuss what a forensic anthropologist can and cannot do for law enforcement officials. Why or why not?
III. Essay. Choose ONE of the following (30 points):
1. You are a forensic anthropologist working
for the California State Medical Examiner, and are presented with the following
scenario. The Medical Examiner would like you to determine as much as possible
about the i ndividual. Discuss in detail the information you used, and how
you arrived at your conclusions.
The complete, articulated skeleton was found
in a shallow grave in the mountains just north of Pasadena, at approximately
5,000 feet. The area is heavily forested with pine and scrub oak. The skeleton
was found in early December. See attached photos.
2. Choose one of the following scenarios, and describe what you would do to recover the remains and identify them. DO NOT choose the scenario your group discussed in class!
A. In 1988, the Iraqi government launched an offensive called the Anfel Campaign against the Iraqi Kurds. The results of this campaign on the village of Koreme were documented in detail by the Middle East Watch and Physicians for Human Rights. Witnesses in Koreme stated that the soldiers came into the village, and separated the villagers into three groups: women and children, old men, and young and adult men. A group of 33 young and adult men were separated from the last group. These men were made to form a line and asked to sit down. They did so, squatting on their heels, rather than sitting. The other villagers were led out of sight at this point.
Several young teenagers were pulled out of the line. After radioing to his superiors in a nearby community, the lieutenant ordered the remaining men shot. The soldiers opened fire on the squatting men. Some were killed immediately, others wounded, and six were missed altogether. There were 27 dead. The soldiers left the execution site without burying, or otherwise touching, the bodies. The remaining villagers were removed from the area that day. Somewhere between a week and 3 weeks after the massacre, the Iraqi soldiers from a nearby station buried the bodies.
The investigation of the site and exhumation of the graves was carried out in 1992 by a team jointly fielded by Physicians for Human Rights and the Middle East Watch. You are part of that team.
B. During the riots in LA, many buildings were burned to the ground. You are a working forensic anthropologist called in only days after the rioting stopped. The LAPD has been given information that one building was not empty when it burned; that a family of four (adult female, adult male, and twin infants) was squatting in the basement of the building. The building was a four-story brick building.
C. On January 15, two small planes, each carrying five passengers, a pilot, and a co-pilot, collided over Burbank Airport. You have been called in to collect the bodies and identify them. On one plane, all passengers and crew were adult males between 35 and 50 years of age. On the second plane, the pilot and co-pilot were males 35-50, with the pilot being near the end of that age range and the co-pilot being near the beginning. The passengers were as follows: young adult female, old adult female, old adult male, adolescent male, infant male.
D. A serial killer has been caught and confessed to burying a multitude of bodies in his back yard and under his basement floor. The confessed that all of the bodies are those of young adult males. The floor of his basement is concrete. The yard is landscaped, with a large grassy area, a vegetable garden, and a rose garden. The basement measures 25'x20'. The entire back yard measures 50'x150'.
E. Hikers in the Angeles forest have stumbled across a human skull at the bottom of a hill. The skull was sitting in the middle of the path. Law enforcement officials would like you to find the body. The path runs through a clearing. The hill is heavily forested at the top, and ground cover consists of thick grasses interspersed with creosote bushes in areas not covered with trees. The hill is steep from the top down about 100m, then flattens out to a gentle slope for the next 500m. The top 100m are forested.
F. In a recent case in northwestern Pennsylvania, a dog recovered a human calotte which exhibited extensive damage from a gunshot wound. The dog lived in a junkyard surrounded by a high fence. The junkyard contained the remains of approximately 2,345 automobiles, in various states of decay. There is also a small shack in which the owner conducts business. The junkyard is not paved, but there is little vegetation. The time of year was summer.