Criminality, narrative and the expert witness in American biohistory

Abstract

This article considers forensic anthropologists’ roles in negotiating the concept of criminality in biohistorical cases, those investigations of the famous and infamous dead that are driven by public interest rather than traditional medicolegal relevance. We review three biohistorical cases from the United States: the purported skull of a martyred Catholic priest from sixteenth century Georgia, the Mountain Meadows Massacre that occurred in Utah in the mid-nineteenth century, and the search for Billy the Kid’s grave in New Mexico. We find that anthropologists have active and passive roles in the manufacture, assignment, and sometimes denial of criminality in these cases. Additionally we explore how the analysis and discussion of violence in these biohistorical cases reflects two concepts that are distinctive to United States’ history, notably manifest destiny and the idea of closure in historical narratives. The perception that the present order is a natural culmination of history, and that the past is truly past underestimates the relevance and impact of labelling past personages as criminals to contemporary culture. As a result, forensic anthropologists’ negotiation of criminality in U.S. biohistorical cases is fraught with nebulous ethical challenges and tangible consequences.

Keywords:

• biohistory
• forensic anthropology
• bioarchaeology
• criminality

Notes

¹ To be submitted to a special issue of the journal Mortality, edited by Melissa Schrift.

1 The concept of memory, particularly collective memory, is an amorphous one because it is, as Novak and Rodseth (2006:2, 7) note, ‘suggestive but indistinct’, and composed of many perspectives with varying layers. As a result, in this paper we focus on the phenomenon that historical collective memory frequently swings between attempts to consider historical phenomena in terms of closure and as an opportunity for debate.

2 We recognise that the line between biohistory and bioarchaeology/osteobiography can blur. Vera Tiesler and Andrea Cucina’s work on the Maya King Janaab' Pakal is an excellent example (Tiesler & Cucina, 2006). The study is clearly osteobiographical; the participants focus on a particular individual and a small number of associated skeletons. However, the fact that Janaab' Pakal was the king of a large, historically important Maya site and that he was buried in a singularly fantastic tomb places him in the historical consciousness of Mexico (Tiesler & Cucina, 2006).

3 For example, consider the debate about whether Johannes Kepler murdered his mentor Tycho Brahe (Jonas, Jaksch, Zellmann, Klemm, & Anderson, 2012; Kahr, 2010; Rasmussen et al., 2013).

4 Another recent photo of Billy the Kid was discovered and valued at some $5 million dollars (The Guardian, 2015).