Forensic anthropologists are often responsible for the management of long-term unidentified individuals. Others have contextualised these decedents—many of whom likely belonged to socially, politically, and/or economically marginalised groups in life—as part of a larger identification crisis in the US. However, there has been little discussion surrounding how this humanitarian crisis has manifested in academic institutions, where anthropologists often provide medicolegal consultation and act as long-term stewards of the unidentified. The Identification & Repatriation Initiative was created at the Forensic Anthropology Centre at Texas State University (FACTS) to recognise and investigate unidentified human remains in long-term storage. Our paper outlines common challenges that were encountered during our initial reassessment of unidentified cases at FACTS, emphasising the detrimental impacts of inconsistent procedures, loss of context, and case fatigue. It is likely that other academic institutions face similar challenges, and by highlighting these issues we hope to help initiate a larger conversation concerning ethical stewardship of human remains in these settings. By incorporating humanitarian perspectives into forensic casework, anthropologists in academia can better advocate for the long-term unidentified. Key points Forensic anthropologists at academic institutions are qualified to act as consultants on forensic casework when requested by jurisdictional authorities and are often responsible for the long-term management of unidentified human remains. The long-term unidentified represent a vulnerable population and academic institutions are not exempt from calls for humanitarian approaches to identification. The Identification and Repatriation Initiative was created at the Forensic Anthropology Centre at Texas State University to acknowledge and investigate unidentified human remains in long-term storage. This paper considers possible ways for humanitarian action to be incorporated into academic settings and suggests anthropologists can better advocate for the unidentified through procedural standardisation, institutional and interagency collaboration and ethical stewardship.

No abstract

The Forensic Anthropology Center at Texas State (FACTS) began accepting whole-body donations for scientific research and educational purposes under the Texas Anatomical Gift Act in 2008. Research conducted with donated whole bodies involves studies in taphonomy and human decomposition, including reconstructing the postmortem interval. Following decomposition, the skeletal elements of all donors are collected, cleaned, and permanently curated into the Texas State Donated Skeletal Collection (TXSTDSC), which is used for teaching and research by faculty and students at Texas State but is also open to external researchers. To date, FACTS has received 710 donors. Fifty-eight percent of donors are male and 42% are female. Donor ages range from 21 weeks’ gestation to 103 years old at the time of death, with a mean of 66 years, and a median of 68 years. Based on self-identified or family-identified ancestry, 90% of donors are White, 4.5% are Hispanic, 3% are Black, less than 2% are of mixed ancestry, and less than 1% are Asian or Native American. Information collected about each donor includes geographic/residential history; occupational history; socioeconomic status; anthropometrics; parity status; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use history; mobility status; an overall health questionnaire; cause and manner of death.

No abstract

Histological analysis of bone tissue has been used to explore a variety of questions relating to age-at-death, habitual behaviors, health, and nutritional stress. Identification of intact and fragmentary osteons is of key interest to many researchers in these studies, yet the definitions of these features vary between researchers making crossstudy comparisons problematic. Furthermore, histological variable definitions are often ambiguous or require subjective classifications by the observer. As a result, and as indicated by previous studies, observer error and misclassification of certain variables, namely intact and fragmentary osteons, can be significant. This study proposes new definitions for intact and fragmentary osteons that are designed to limit observer subjectivity and also explore efficacy of combining osteon types into one variable. A sample of 30 6th rib cross-sections from a modern forensic population was used to test the validity of the proposed definitions. Observations of intact osteon population density (OPD(I)) and fragmentary osteon population density (OPD(F)) were made by three observers for each cross-section. These observations were used to explore the interobserver error associated with the proposed definitions and determine if combining variables into one variable (OPD) mitigates persisting classification difficulties.Results indicate that the proposed definitions significantly reduce interobserver error and misclassification of intact and fragmentary osteons. However, the interobserver error associated with fragmentary osteons is still high. Evaluation of the variables independently indicates that combining variables has potential to reduce the predictive strength of an age estimation model and the ability to interpret age-related bone remodeling.