Journal article
What makes a "good" forensic anthropologist?
American anthropologist, Vol.125(3)
06/13/2023
Web of Science ID: WOS:001003806500001
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Abstract
Forensic anthropology has recently and publicly grappled with fundamental disciplinary issues-including estimating population affinity, the pursuit of objectivity, and the role of bias in medicolegal contexts-all of which has left the subdiscipline in a state of seeming fracture, with many practitioners worried about its future. Given these concerns, we wondered to what degree polarization exists, if at all, and along what lines. Using the method of cultural consensus analysis, we asked forensic anthropologists: What makes a "good" forensic anthropologist? Our findings suggest that contrary to widespread concern, broad agreement (consensus) exists over the training, experiences, perspectives, and practices forensic anthropologists (n = 103) identified as important for being "good" at what they do. A few points of disagreement emerged-particularly over the issue of neutrality-which dominated the narrative feedback we received. The fault lines of this debate primarily fell along generational lines, with those having earned their degrees earlier believing more strongly in neutrality. This pattern largely maps onto broader (and somewhat routine) disciplinary debates and trends away from positivism, with younger anthropologists more focused on the larger goal of "decolonizing US anthropology" and attending to the antiracist work that figures prominently in anthropology today.
Details
- Title
- What makes a "good" forensic anthropologist?
- Publication Details
- American anthropologist, Vol.125(3)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Number of pages
- 15
- Copyright
- © 2023 by the American Anthropological Association.
- Identifiers
- WOS:001003806500001; 99380191297206600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English; Spanish