Forensic Anthropology beyond bones: genealogies, ethics, and methods.
A Antropologia Forense além dos ossos: genealogias, ética e métodos.

Coordenador / Coordinator:
Francisco CURATE
Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde – DCV, FCTUC
franciscocurate@gmail.com

Co-coordenador / Co-coordinator
(se aplicável, não obrigatório / if applicable, not mandatory):
Maria Teresa FERREIRA
Centro de Ecologia Funcional, DCV – FCTUC
mferreira@uc.pt

Debatedor / Discussant
(se aplicável, não obrigatório / if applicable, not mandatory):

Língua principal / Main language: Inglês / English (EN)

Língua complementar / Complementary language: Português / Portuguese (PT)

Língua de trabalho preferencial (não exclusiva) /
Prefered working language (not exclusive): Inglês / English (EN)

Detalhes do painel na língua principal /
Panel details in main language
Título / Title
Forensic Anthropology beyond bones: genealogies, ethics, and methods.

Resumo curto / Short abstract
The fundamental ethical tenets concerning forensic anthropology (FA) are of major importance within this panel’s commitments. Moreover, FA is a discipline concerned with the identification of anonymous skeletal remains, and the plethora of techniques that enable this procedural system are discussed in the wake of the Daubert guidelines and methodological pluralism.

Resumo longo / Long abstract
As an applied, highly specialized, intellectual tradition within the confines of natural and social sciences, the law and the medico-legal system, forensic anthropology is constantly being permeated by humanitarian purposes and technological limitations, whose mutual articulation is both desirable and challenging. Lately, most ethical debates within the field stem from the sheer reality of using human skeletal remains for scientific research. Human skeletons endure as a material embodiment of once-living people, placed in the midst of a reticulate of religious beliefs, kin affiliations and social memories. Moreover, forensic anthropologists also maintain distinctive relationships with a myriad of interested individuals or stakeholders – including the families of the deceased, human rights organizations, police forces and criminal suspects – that demand for a codified interface of ethics and social policy within the discipline. The fundamental ethical tenets concerning the discipline are thus of major importance in this panel’s discussion. Forensic anthropology is mainly concerned with the identification (including, to a degree, the more contested concepts of personhood and identity) of anonymous skeletal remains. Thus, the broad range of techniques that enable identification are also discussed in the wake of the Daubert v. Merrell Dow ruling and methodological pluralism.