Chapter 3: Establishing Medicolegal Significance

This chapter describes the earliest analyses done by forensic anthropologists, that is: determining if an object found is of medicolegal significance. The steps by which this determination is made can be carried out sequentially as: determine if it is made of bone, determine if the bone is human or nonhuman, and if it is human, determine if the person is recent or nonrecent. The methods used in each of these steps are discussed, with special emphasis on easily visible traits, but mention is made of more complex methods requiring special instruments.