Branch Of Forensic Anthropology

Anthropology is the branch of science which deals with the comparative study of human being, their origin, physical and cultural development and biological characteristics [1]. It also gives us knowledge about the evolutionary history of human being, the variation in social and cultural behavior among the different race of people, the structural development and variation in physical status of different group of human population and it also proved itself as a boon for researchers [2].

The term anthropology comes from the Greek word “anthropos” meaning “human being” and “logia” meaning “study”.

SUBDIVISION OF ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology can be subdivided into the following two parts :

• Social Anthropology :- it is the branch which deals with

So for establishment of the identity of a person, measurement of stature is considered as the most valuable parameter in forensic anthropology [10]. In the field of forensic anthropology determination of identity of an individual is considered as the most important character, specifically when a damaged body or mutilated bodies are found and also if bones are available after the death of individual at the site of crime or any other place

So for anatomist, anthropologist, and forensic medicine experts, height estimation has become a matter of interest by measuring the different part of the body [10,13,14].

The traditional goal of forensic anthropology is to identify human remains once they have been skeletonized, although the forensic anthropologist may be confronted with burned remains, hair sample, footprints, fingerprints, lip prints, blood or any other tissue sample for blood typing and DNA profiling [16]. In the typical forensic-anthropoloical analysis determination of age, sex, and ante-mortem stature of the unknown individual is also included [17].

To identify the identity of a deceased person is of great medico-legal significance. Human bones are the frames for our identity not just frame for the flesh. Even fragmentary remains of the body would tell something about the owner. The main problem arise in identification when mutilated part of dead body or skeletal remains are brought to the forensic experts [18]. Since the natural and manmade disaster are very frequent to occur now a days, like cyclone, tsunamis, flood, earthquake etc. and also man-made disaster like wars, accident, terrorist attack, plane crashes, bomb blast etc, hence it has become necessary for the forensic expert to establish the identity of a person from decomposed body segment or from the