Mid-Term Reflection on Anthropology
The study of human existence is quite intriguing. A number of theories have been used to validate the origin of man, and it’s still fascinating to reflect on how man came into being on this planet. Anthropology is a vast subject, but for me, it gives me a lot of interest to study about skeletons, and other decomposed, human remains to understand the kind of life that person led. A dig into the unknown excites me, and when I come across a skeleton or a decomposed body, the first thing that comes to my mind is to know the person whom I found. I have an affinity for studying forensic anthropology. Even though the subject defines the study as being part of an investigation to examine human skeletal remains for law enforcement agencies by determining the identity of unidentified bones, the intrinsic study to understand whether the bone or human remains belonged to a male or female, and figure out how that person lived in the past, is what makes anthropology for me, an exciting subject. While archaeologists dig out coffins of past civilizations, it is anthropologists who can look at human remains or study the bones and try and answer questions such as how old was the person when he or she died, and was he or she in good health at the time of the death, and most importantly, why did the person die? It may come as a surprise to many, but when a number of skeletal remains those were unearthed by archaeologists and studied by anthropologists, they found that the cause of the death of that person was unnatural. For example, when the skull of Richard III was studied by anthropologists, it was found that he was stabbed many times in his head before his death. There were 11 wounds on the skull of the last monarch to die on the battlefield. King Richard III died of the wounds inflicted on his head during a battle at Bosworth Fields in 1485 (Smith). Why this case is important to me is that by studying the skull of the slain monarch, I could visualize the moment in history of the king’s last moments, when he was probably ambushed and attacked viciously by four or five people with daggers, swords and axes. What anthropologists can do is unravel the mystery of people in their true form, as against surviving documents that could be misleading. This is what excites me.
Works Cited
Smith, Roff. 'Richard III Killed By Sustained Attack, Suffering 9 Wounds To Head'. National Geographic. N.p., 2014. Web. 1 Nov. 2014.
