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Thesis
Does Embodied Violence Impact Forensic Anthropological Age Estimation?: Investigating Skeletal Indicators of Biological "Weathering" in Modern U.S. Individuals
University of West Florida Libraries
Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida
Spring 2022
Abstract
The weathering hypothesis states that the overall health of Black Americans declines cumulatively compared to white Americans due to living with structural inequity that they may embody over their life course. Thus, the remains of prematurely weathered individuals may “look older” than their chronological age and thus result in an inaccurate age estimate by forensic anthropologists. To test the weathering hypothesis on human skeletal remains, 183 skeletal individuals from the W.M. Bass Collection were analyzed and scored on: antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) via the Eichner index; the Suchey-Brooks pubic symphysis aging method; and the San-Millán et al. acetabulum aging method. The sample included BIPOC (n=56) and low- and high-socioeconomic status white (n=127) self- or kin-donated individuals. It was hypothesized that the BIPOC individuals would on average “score older” on all age indicators compared with both white sub-populations, and that lower-SES white individuals would on average ‘score older’ on all age indicators compared with the higher-SES white sample.The hypothesis that BIPOC individuals would “score older” was supported in acetabular Variable 3. When only high-SES white individuals were included, however, BIPOC scores were also significantly higher for Suchey-Brooks phases and the acetabular variables V1, V6, and V7. The hypothesis that lower-SES whites would “score older” than high-SES was supported for AMTL and one acetabular Variable 6. The results of this study show that aging is far from a monolithic process, tracking weathering subtly. Although the results do not indicate that BIPOC individuals always, on average, ‘score older,’ or appear biologically older skeletally, it is shown that individual biological age inferred from skeletal remains has variance, confirming that lived experiences indeed become embodied and human variation is ever-growing.
Details
- Title
- Does Embodied Violence Impact Forensic Anthropological Age Estimation?
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Contributors
- Allysha P Winburn (Advisor)Meredith Marten (Committee Member)Katherine Miller Wolf (Committee Member)
- Publisher
- University of West Florida Libraries
- Format
- pdf
- Number of pages
- 140
- Copyright
- Permission granted to the University of West Florida Libraries to digitize and/or display this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires the permission of the copyright holder.
- Identifiers
- 99380090596506600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Master of Arts (MA)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida