Introduction

As dened by Ellis Kerley (1978:160), forensic anthropology is “the specialized subdiscipline of physical anthropology that applies the techniques of osteology and skeletal identication to problems of legal and public concern.” Yet, as editors, we trace our academic pedigrees to William R. Maples who was a forensic anthropologist keenly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of working as consultant, curator, expert witness, mentor, and laboratory director (Figure 1.1). rough his scholar-practitioner philosophy we expand Kerley’s denition with Maples’ views of forensic anthropology as an applied anthropology eld that promulgates the view that its practitioners are educated in the subelds of physical anthropology (human and nonhuman primate anatomy, evolution, behavior), human osteology (the skeletal system on macroscopic and microscopic levels), and archaeology (analysis of material culture) in order to debate their ndings concerning a decedent’s identication, time since death, and trauma analysis in a court of law.