Now I'm not entirely sure who is going to read this and who is not, but I figured as long as I have a chance to talk/write/blog/etc. I may as well use the time wisely.
Now I am as big a fan of
Bones as the rest of you, maybe more so in some respects, less so in others. I am also an Anthropology student in Vermont with the goal of going into a forensic concentration when I get to grad school. Now, I'm not claiming to be an expert, especially given that I'm still in school and have about 8 more years ahead of me, but I do know a few things. The first of which is that what Angela does for the team - drawing faces using the skull and various input from what Bones tells her - is a very, very imprecise art form, especially these days with genetic blending.
But lets back up a bit. Any anthropologist will tell you straight off the bat that race is a concept invented by people who were trying to put down other races so that they were superior. (The side fact that Anthropology was invented to further back this up is merely that, a side fact, and one that anthropologists have spent eons trying to atone for.) After years of study, anthropologists have come to the conclusion that there is more diversity within a given ethnic group than there is between races. However, facts remain, there are a few characteristics in bones that can be used to determine "geographic originality".
Now don't get too excited. The databases that these are based on come from way, way back. Ethnic blending has been getting more and more severe (that's not to say it's bad, because it most definitely is not), and the scales and tables and databases need desperately to be redone. Our current frame of reference is a bit old, and from a time when ethnic blending did not happen so much, particularly not in the United States.
Now you may have noticed a little bit back there that I said it's going to take me 8 more years of schooling before I can become a forensic anthropologist. How many of you have looked at a bone (be it chicken, cow, or otherwise) and went, "Yeah, I could do this. Hand me a few books."? Well, simply put it's not nearly that easy. I took a semester introductory course in forensic anthropology, and trust me, it is not that easy. First there's the stench, then there's the dead person, then there's the, "Wait a minute, that's not a human hand!" Oh, yes. More than half of the calls that forensic anthropologists make are actually animal bones that have been confused for human. Now on the other hand, if it has sheep ribs and bear paws in its structure, you're more than likely right, it's human.
Back to my main point. To become a working forensic anthropologist, your best option is to A) make connections and B) get your PhD. In fact, the career guide for the Forensic Sciences states one fact. You have to make connections in the police force and the FBI, and maybe with the local coroners office. If you're a professor of Biological Anthropology and/or Archaeology, they may call on you for help. If they know who to go to, they will.
Bones often shows forensic anthropology as a full time job. It's not. (Of course, unless you're Kathy Reichs and are splitting your time between two different areas - oh yeah, AND writing a book, AND producing a TV show. No wonder more and more forensic anthropologists are jumping on the book writing circus train.) Of course, you make hundreds of dollars an hour on consultation fees. But it takes a long time to get there.
First off, you have to spend hour upon hour learning the bones, their most intricate secrets, how to recognize peri-mortem, premortem, and postmortem damage, how to recognise the genetic anomalies, how to recognise the differenct between sharp force trauma, blunt force trauma, bullet wounds, greenstick fractures, etc, etc, etc... And that means time spent with dead bodies. Then, the real, true test is if you manage to spend some time (summer or otherwise) down in Tennessee at the Body Farm. Part of the University of Tennessee, Dr. Bill Bass (another book writing Forensic Anthropologist) spends time analyzing decomposition rates, what affects different time rates, etc. Most anthropologists who want to go into forensics go to Dr. Bass now. Even Patricia Cornwell has been down there. You have to do internships. You have to study. (And I mean study - I'm talking full out medical school level studying, except without the real live people to diagnose... which in my case is a good thing. Good with the dead, good in a sitch when there's not but wood and trees, but real people with necks gushing blood in a hospital ER? Forget it!)
But here's the thing. If you can do it. If you can make it the whole ten years. If you can get your PhD, then you are needed. You are needed to teach those who have never taken archaeology in their lives that picking up arrowheads on state property is actually a crime and they need to leave it there (no matter how lucky they feel). You are needed to stand up in front of a hundred college students and teach them about the history of the world, of the human race, to teach about our connection to primates. And you are needed to teach the next generation of forensic anthropologists the difference between a bullet wound and a sternal foramen - especially when that is the most basic of all of the differences, and one that any fan of
Bones should know by now.
To all of you
Bones fans. Watch the show. Enjoy the show.
~Robin Donovan (creator of
Bones - The International Group Facebook group & webpage)
Have questions about real life forensic anthropology or instances in
Bones where you questioned the truth of it? E-mail them to
robin.donovan@grapdornfalls.com.
