Recentering forensic anthropology within a multifaceted body of evolutionary theory: Strengthening method by making theory explicit

Abstract

AbstractThe discipline of forensic anthropology has been critiqued for its lack of a theoretical basis. In response, practitioners often assert that their analyses are implicitly grounded in evolutionary theory. However, the nature of this theoretical grounding is little discussed in the forensic anthropology literature, beyond, for example, statements indicating that sex‐based pelvic differences have evolved in response to increasing encephalization within the genusHomo, or that clinal variation in features like limb proportions have evolved within our species due to environmental pressures that differ on a gradient. Further, while the role of natural selection in shaping the morphologies analyzed in biological profile estimation is undeniable, adaptation in response to environmental pressures does not explain all variation within our species. Evolutionary theory is not monolithic; different perspectives on the primacy of functional adaptation versus factors like drift and phenotypic plasticity lead to differences in skeletal interpretations and lead researchers to novel approaches in creating new or improving current methodologies. Various theoretical perspectives underpin forensic anthropological analyses, and in order for forensic anthropology to be truly grounded in evolutionary theory, these theoretical perspectives must be not only made explicit but also interrogated in terms of how they inform forensic anthropological interpretations.