Progress in forensic anthropology: the 20th century

Anthropological contribution to forensic sciences has been multifaceted and the progress has been remarkable in the last quarter of this century. The field has brought together scientists from all around the world. The purpose of this paper is to present a special issue on forensic anthropological research. Some of the papers cover age estimation from the ankle and knee epiphyses (India), basioccipital synchondrosis (also India), sternal end rib metamorphosis in Turks, and histomorphometry of the Japanese. Sex determination from the South African cranium and Mongoloid humerus are the subject of two papers. Factors of individualization include a comparison of photographic images using neural network, bone trabecular radiography, determination of handedness from the humerus, time since death using 210Po to 210Pb ratio, and changes in the mineral content of bone after burial. From the papers in this special issue it can be concluded that there will be integration of many areas of forensic sciences to deal with anthropological issues in the 21st century. Estimation of time since death will be based on new and more precise techniques. Further research is needed to develop population specific osteological standards for populations of Africa, central and southeast Asia and Pacific region. In addition, there will be an increased interest in the study of living people.     

Paths toward autonomy: The living conditions of fostered children in western France in the early 20th century

In order to test the validity of widespread notions about the unhappy lives of abandoned French children placed in foster care around the turn of the 20th century, the article uses the case files and inspectors' reports of the Romorantin agency to analyze the nature of fosterage: the children's continuing links to their biological parents, to their foster families, and with the Assistance publique system, which administered the fosterage system and the agency. The Romorantin agency was located in Sologne in the center of France, 120 miles south of Paris, and placed out in the countryside only children “abandoned” in Paris. The analysis suggests that although the lives of fostered children were characterized by constraints and, at times, mistreatment, in many respects, these children were able to experience more autonomy and choice to shape their lives than their peers in “normal” families. A close reading of the sources shows their lives to have had less of the stereotyped unhappiness usually attributed to them.     

The study of adolescence during the 20th century

The scientific study of adolescence in America during the 20th century is reviewed, beginning with the work of G. Stanley Hall. Recurring themes and shifts in focus spanning the last century are identified. Hall's ideas about normative turmoil have been replaced by the recognition that as they pass from childhood to adulthood adolescents may take a number of different paths, many of which are not tumultuous. There is now growing recognition that the definition of these paths and the timing of entry into and out of adolescence are dependent on societal and historical constraints.     

Sex assessment from the carpals bones: discriminant function analysis in a 20th century Spanish sample

Sex assessment is one of the first essential steps in human identification, in both medico-legal cases and bio-archaeological contexts. Fragmentary human remains compromised by different types of inhumation or physical insults may frustrate the use of the traditional sex estimation methods, such as the analysis of the skull and pelvis. Currently, the application of discriminant functions to sex unidentified skeletal remains is steadily increasing. However, several studies have demonstrated that, due to variation in size and patterns of sexual dimorphism, discriminant function equations are population-specific [1,2,5,12,61]. In this study, in order to improve sex assessment from skeletal remains and to establish population-specific discriminant functions, the diagnostic values of the carpal bones were considered. A sample of 100 individuals (50 males and 50 females) of known sex and age was analyzed. They belong to a 20th century identified collection from the Municipal Cemetery of "San José", Granada (Spain) and housed in the Laboratory of Anthropology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Granada (Spain). The age of the individuals ranged between 22 and 85 years. Between four and nine measurements of each carpal bone were performed [41,59]. Discriminant function statistics showed a sex assessment accuracy as high as 97.8%. The results suggest that carpal bones can be used for assessing sex in both forensic and bio-archaeological identification procedures.     

Family breakdown and the ‘Welfare Child’ in 19th and 20th century Britain

This article traces new cycles of interest in past children as distinct from past childhood. Recent work highlighting that a conceptualisation of childhood existed even in periods with few written records closes the chapter begun by Philippe Ariès in 1960. Instead, there has been a new surge of interest in children on the edges of family life, as well as children in similarly liminal positions between the worlds of adults and children: runaways, delinquents and orphans. Several themes in the literature are identified, based on the conflicting ideas of ‘body/mind’, ‘victim/threat’, ‘needs/rights’. It is noted that researchers are using more imaginative ways of reaching the lived experience of children than the family or institutional framework, and that an increasing link is drawn between historical and modern concerns such as child abuse and the care of ‘at risk’ children.     

Nationalism and family ideology: The case of Lithuania at the turn of the 20th century

At the turn of the 20th century, many European countries paid increasing attention to the family as a social institution. The interest itself was closely related to the rise of nationalism in Europe, and consequently, the family was supposed to serve its goals. Similar to German, Italian or French nationalists, Lithuanian-speaking intelligentsia were aware of the importance of the family in developing a strong nation. Nevertheless, unlike Westerners, the Lithuanian nationalists did not connect the family ideology with pronatalistic discourse. Lithuanian family ideology was not focused on procreation as its main goal. Only a nationally conscious wife and children raised in the Lithuanian spirit were considered to be the most solid base for a strong nation.     

Marriage in urban Albania (during the first half of the twentieth century)

This article analyses the marriage pattern in urban Albania, based primarily on the data of the Albanian Population Census of 1918. Age at marriage and the factors influencing nuptiality among the urban population are analysed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative data. The analyses show that the marriage pattern in urban Albania was similar to Laslett's Mediterranean set, while rural areas displayed an age at marriage for both men and women which was characteristic of the marriage pattern East of the Hajnal line. Albanian cities showed a higher age at marriage for both men and women than villages. The difference in age at marriage between urban and rural areas was noticeably higher for men, while the age at marriage for women showed smaller differences. An explanation for these differences in the age at marriage was found in a combination of traditional marital behaviour and demographic issues, which broadened or narrowed the marriage field, thus directly influencing the age at marriage.     

Marriage and household in the Belgrade elite at the beginning of the 20th century: The Novaković family

After centuries of Ottoman dominance, the emergence of a Christian elite in 19th century Serbia was a new phenomenon. The princedom's administrative, court and military staff mostly assembled Serbians from both Ottoman and Habsburg territories, joined by Tsintsar (Aromunian), German, and other minorities. This staff grew into a small urban upper class until 1900, presenting itself in a gentrified, Western-oriented, but nationally conscious manner. This article explores its marriage and household patterns in a case study. It is based on the rich collection of family letters preserved in the estate of former prime minister Stojan Novaković.     

The accumulation and transmission of wealth over a long period: example of a rural family from Loire-Atlantique in the 19th and early 20th centuries

This research seeks to trace the transfer of wealth down the male line of a rural French family through the 19th and 20th centuries, and to decipher the logic of accumulating and transferring wealth. The subject will be approached from an angle different from that of Segalen [Ethnol. Fr. 8 (1978) 271], who followed which farmers had cultivated the same farm through two centuries. The itinerary of wealth passing through the six generations examined here was traced using the range of legal documents that mark a person's life: purchases, sales, exchanges, marriage contracts, gifts, and inheritances. Wealth behavioral patterns that are assumed to follow an economic logic are described using neoclassical economic models.     

"My'Partner'in Law and Life": Marriage in the Lives of Women Lawyers in Late 19th and Early 20th Century America

This essay examines the ways in which women lawyers of two generation–the pioneer generation of the 1880s and the "new woman" generation of the 1910s–confronted the dilemma of marriage and career. Members of the Equity Club in the 1880s revealed three distinct sets of attitudes toward balancing marriage and career: the separatist approach that a professional woman must remain single; the Victorian attitude that a married woman must sacrifice her career; and the integrated approach that a woman could have both marriage and career. Women lawyers surveyed by the Bureau of Vocational Information in 1920 revealed that the "new woman" generation of women lawyers lived in an era of transition. While they shared the same separatist, Victorian, and integrated views toward marriage and law practice as did women lawyers in the 1880s, they also embraced the new values of the early 20th century which shaped both the contours of the legal profession and the parameters of women's lives. Set within the context of the new values of the era, the separatist, Victorian, and integrated approaches to resolving the dilemma of marriage and career, which were originally formulated by women lawyers in the late 19th century, assumed new meanings for women lawyers in the early 20th century.     

Medical diagnosis of legal culpability: the impact of early psychiatric testimony in the 19th century English criminal trial

Fast-paced developments in psychiatry, neuroscience and emerging neuroimaging technologies place continual pressure on the legal recognition of mental illness and disease across jurisdictional boundaries. Nevertheless, the Canadian legal definition of exculpatory mental disease in the context of criminal liability has remained largely static, sheltered from the immediate influence of medical theory and advancements. In order to effectively reflect on the intersection of mental health and criminal justice systems in this area, it is important to understand its historical development and the English common law origins of the current approach. Specifically turning to the early 19th century, documented history and accounts of early medical witness testimony on the mental state of the accused provide a unique opportunity to understand the initial collision between fundamental concepts of moral and legal culpability and new scientific understandings of mental function and disease. In this article, I suggest that early psychiatric testimony to the accused's mental state challenged the evolving criminal law of 19th century England to reconcile its restrictive definition of "insanity" with expanding scientific reasoning and accounts of mental disease. The trial of Edward Oxford, an attempted royal assassination case of 1840, is examined as a symbolic height in this conflict prior to the first common law pronouncement of the current approach in 1843. As debate continues on the role of medical advancement in the identification of exculpatory medical disorders in law, this historical perspective may serve as a touchstone in balancing the enforcement of legal culpability with our society's greater appreciation for mental illness.     

Women murderers and victims of abuse in a southern state

We consider the hypothesis that abused women who kill their abusers are not socially different from other abused women. Comparing two groups of women from a Deep South state, one group incarcerated for killing their partners (n=21) and the other served by a shelter for battered women (n=273), we find mixed support for the conclusion that the two groups represent a homogeneous general population of abused women. The women incarcerated for killing their male partners appear to be more isolated from the social mainstream and in greater perceived danger than the women who used the shelter. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1990 Southern Sociological Society Annual Meetings. Invaluable comments on earlier versions of the paper were received from Judith Stitzel, Shirley Dowdy, Ann Paterson, Sally Maggard, Janet Curry, Jon Conte, Mary Jo Ullom, and Lorrie Hardy.     

Marriage systems and remarriage in 19th century Hungary: a comparative study

The paper tries to examine the intensity and possible influencing factors of remarriages in two distant communities of historic Hungary during the 19th century. It uses longitudinal data gained from parish registers and family reconstitution method and event history models for the analysis of remarriage. Having only incomplete information on the social status of widowed persons, we used sex, age at widowhood, period, duration of widowhood and family composition as independent variables in the models. The analysis could prove that there were considerable differences within the ‘Eastern marriage pattern’: the analysed Transylvanian community showed a higher propensity to remarry than the West Hungarian one. This result fits well into the differing demographic patterns of the two communities. The most probable causes of these differences were better mortality and differing social composition in the Hungarian village. High propensity to remarry and the high proportion of widower/widow marriages stress the unique character of the Transylvanian community. Otherwise the role of sex was decisive in remarriage, that of age and duration of widowhood were also considerable, while period effect could not be observed. The presence of working-age sons decreased the relative risk of remarriage significantly. In this respect there were no considerable differences between the studied communities, and the results are similar to those of other research.     

Families and family structure in a Neo-Hellenic city: Hermoupolis in the mid-19th century

This article begins with the creation and development of the city of Hermoupolis and stresses its prominent economic role during the 19th century in the Greek state. It points out the problems of the official censuses and emphasizes the importance of the original source of the 1861 census of Hermoupolis, which was found in the city's municipal archives. It analyzes this source and offers some working hypotheses about the structure of households (where the dominant type is the simple family), the frequency of domestic servants, the wide spectrum of occupations, the origin of inhabitants, and social mobility based on 501 households (17%) representing 1901 individuals (17.52%) of the total for which we have information.     

Infant mortality in Bremen in the 19th century

This article analyses the development of infant mortality in the port city of Bremen within a disaggregated framework, using the available material from civil birth and death registers, as well as the census returns for 1862, 1871, 1885, 1895, and 1905. The analysis focuses on a number of factors that affected infant mortality, including breast-feeding, female labor-force participation, social class, and migrant status. Particular attention is paid to the age structure of infant mortality in relation to stillbirths and reproductive mortality, as well as registered trends in neonatal and postneonatal mortality. The Bremen data also provide a basis for analyzing infant mortality by cause of death and seasonality. By incorporating disaggregated demographic and socioeconomic data, the authors are able to offer some new insights into the determinants of urban infant mortality trends in the 19th century.     

Forensic medicine in Bordeaux in the 16th century

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Renaissance was accompanied by a real cultural revolution in Europe and France. Montaigne, the Bordeaux humanist and writer, was highly involved in this movement, particularly by his thinking on medicine, physicians, and illness. The 2 forensic reports presented are the oldest known testimonies of forensic medical activity in Bordeaux in the 16th century. They concern a visit to prison in 1556 and the solemn transfer of the body of a man hanged in 1579. The authors also describe how necropsies were performed before 1573 in Bordeaux, the year in which medical studies were reformed. However, the first official teaching of forensic medicine in Bordeaux (Ecole Royale de Médecine) began only in 1814.     

Gunshot injuries as a topic of medicolegal research in the German-speaking countries from the beginning of the 20th century up to the present time

The 100th anniversary of the foundation of the German Society of Legal Medicine is a good opportunity to review its contributions to forensic wound ballistics. The present article gives an overview of the scientific development in this field with special emphasis on work pioneering new developments and findings valid up to the present day, for example the presence of carboxyhemoglobin in the vicinity of the entrance wound as a sign of a contact or close-range shot [A. Paltauf, Wien. Klin. Wochenschr. 3 (1890) 984-991, 1015-1017]; the correct interpretation of the muzzle imprint [A. Werkgartner, Beitr. Gerichtl. Med. 6 (1924) 148-161] and the retrograde ballooning of the bullet entrance region in contact shots [F. Hausbrandt, Dtsch. Z. ges. Gerichtl. Med. 38 (1944) 45-76; H. Elbel, Med. Welt 20 (1958) 343-345]; wound patterns from captive-bolt livestock stunners [H. Czursiedel, Dtsch. Z. ges. Gerichtl. Med. 28 (1937) 132-133]; singeing of synthetic fiber textiles in close-range shots with nitro powder ammunition [S. Berg, Arch. Kriminol. 124 (1959) 5-8,17-22]; the wound ballistic processes on penetration of the bullet and the origin of the abrasion collar [K. Sellier, Beitr. Gerichtl. Med. 25 (1969) 265-270]. More recently medicolegal research in the German-speaking countries covered the following subjects: studies of the dynamic bullet-target interactions in experimental gunshots to simulants and composite body models; use of modern imaging techniques (CT, MRI) in the pre-autopsy diagnosis of lethal gunshot injuries; injuries from blank guns; mechanisms of incapacitation by gunshot injuries; development of improved methods for the evidence of gunshot residues on the firing hand; backspatter from close-range shots; medicolegal contributions in the discrimination of accidental, homicidal and suicidal gunshot injuries.