Forensic anthropologists are important experts in the international justice system when seeking reparations for victims of political violence and genocide (Ubelaker et al. 2019). Their work to locate and excavate clandestine graves to then identify the individuals in them and decipher what happened to them by analyzing their bones provides strong scientific evidence when building a case for the international courts. From the skeleton, the identities and physical traumas of a person killed in a genocide are enough to give justice and reparations to the violated communities (Fleischmann 2016). However, several politically motivated roadblocks that forensic anthropologists encounter while documenting human rights abuses can prevent their work from being ethically carried out. Because political violence is often state-sponsored, if the leaders who facilitated the war crimes are still in power, they will not allow forensic anthropologists to conduct their investigations against them. Even if there is a new government in place, the international courts are heavily influenced by the nation-states that fund them, leaving the victims of powerful countries vulnerable to unchecked violence due to their world standing or their allies’ world standings. Because the jurisdiction of the main international courts is not clearly defined and is binding only if the involved countries agree to uphold their decisions, the likelihood of reparations being made and accountability taking place is low. These forms of corruption directly impact a forensic anthropologist’s ability to collect evidence, testify, and ensure that their work is meaningfully interpreted to protect human rights in the future.

          The child and childhood were left out of archaeological research until after the development of feminist theory within the discipline. Grete Lillehammer’s 1989 article served as a catalyst to begin focusing on archaeological sites with the child at the center. For the first time, a child’s agency is acknowledged, and they are framed to be dependent on adults while still having an impactful effect on their society. Lillehammer proposed three levels of cultural transfusion involving children. The first is how they interact with their environment. The next is how they communicate with other children through actions such as playing. The last level is how adults pass down culture through their children. In the decades since, childhood social archaeologists and bioarchaeologists use both social and biological age when handling juvenile remains because the developmental stage of an individual does not always coincide with a culture’s definition of a child. Several postprocessual case studies indicate childhood experiences, such as political and economic status, malnutrition, mortality and morbidity, and burial rituals, to be important in the conquest for a complete understanding of a cultural group, especially considering children are not the invisible phantoms in a society that they were assumed to be.

          Cranial measurements can indicate if the size of variables is indicative of a particular group of people. These population-specific features also vary between males and females within a population in an expression known as sexual dimorphism. It is hypothesized that the crania of the Norse and Zalavar samples are sexually dimorphic within respective populations and show similar patterns of sexual dimorphism when compared across populations. 12 craniometric variables of the Norse (n = 110) and Zalavar (n = 98) populations were acquired from the William W. Howells Craniometric Data Set. The six cranial measurements analyzed are the Maximum Cranial Breadth, Maximum Cranial Length, Mastoid Height, Parietal Chord, Occipital Chord, and Frontal Chord. The six facial measurements comprise the Nasal Height, Bizygomatic Breadth, Supraorbital Projection, Biorbital Breadth, Bimaxillary Breadth, and Orbital Height. Kruskal-Wallis, Dunn’s, and correlation tests were run to ascertain if and where statistical significance occurred. Kruskal-Wallis tests revealed statistical significance in all 12 of the variables, while Dunn’s tests clarified the differences consistently took place between males and females within populations, although Orbital Height and Occipital Chord were not statistically different. Maximum Cranial Length (Males <0.001, Females = 0.012) and Orbital Height (Males = 0.014, Females = 0.015) were the only variables statistically significant across populations. Males and females varied very little from their sex counterparts across populations. In contrast, the sexes within populations were highly sexually dimorphic, accepting the alternative hypothesis of consistent patterns between the Norse and Zalavar populations.

          The role of a forensic anthropologist in investigating human rights violations pertains to mass grave exhumation, skeletal analysis, and identification, the latter often consisting of DNA testing or dental examinations (Fleischman, 2016). Excavating a mass grave usually requires methods borrowed from archaeology, like mapping a pre-determined ground area, digging with a backhoe or trowel by soil layer until the remains are revealed, and recording the location, position, and preservation of the bones. After proper documentation, the bones are transported to a laboratory for thorough investigation using labeled boxes and bags. Once they arrive, the bones are reassembled into anatomical positions and closely observed to classify what trauma has occurred, where on the body it is, and what the damage suggests. Forensic anthropologists are capable of distinguishing between antemortem, perimortem, and postmortem trauma, as well as malnourishment, disease, and skeletal disorders. To begin the identification process, which can be impossible if there are not enough of the remains present, anthropologists build a biological profile, in which they employ multiple techniques to estimate age-at-death, sex, stature, and population affinity. This can also be completed if DNA is present, through fingerprints, or if previous dental scans are available for comparison. From just the skeleton, the identity and injuries of a person killed from political violence can be learned and brought to light to provide the evidence needed for reparations and justice.

          Ceramics are a portal back to the times of the ancient Inca and Aztec Empires, revealing the inner workings of the culture through the creation process and usage. There are significant differences between the pottery made and used before and after the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. This pertains to the molding, glazing, and designing efforts that go into the work before it can be operated. The shift from strictly indigenous influence to the additional blend of European qualities is documented by the artifacts recovered by archaeologists and compared to the Spaniard accounts of the 16th century. There are also many similarities that occur in tandem concerning the ceramic habits of the Incas and Aztecs, before and after the conquests, especially considering the lack of written reports from the true perspectives of the natives and the language barrier between the two civilizations. Although the natives of the Americas suffered terrible tragedies at the hands of the Spaniards, the long withstanding pottery of the time attests to the preservation of indigenous culture even when the colonizers were determined to distinguish it.