What does a forensic anthropologist do exactly? Because what im thinking of is a coroner but there is a reason that they are called coroners and what your studying is anthropology. I would like to know so that way I don't get confused? plus it sounds kind of cool.
Haa it’s all a lot of complicated that most people who don’t study anthropology or medical stuff don’t even know about it let alone bother trying to learn the dynamics.
There’s at least one coroner in every county, as far as I’m aware, and they’re an elected official type deal thing. They deal with the dead bodies and stuff and work in the local morgue but they could have studied to be a painter for all their education matters.
A forensic anthropologist is a type of anthropologist that focuses on dead bodies, usually relatively recently deceased— long ago deceased tends to be the archeologist’s territory (another branch of anthropology—something I’ve realized not a lot of people know???). Forensic anthropologists are often hired by government agencies to help solve murders and deaths and stuff (hence the title “forensic”). They know pretty much everything there is to know about the human body, especially the bones. They normally don’t go to med school tho, instead they went to more school and got their PhD — most medical doctors don’t actually have a phd, instead they did those years of whatever it’s called where they’re a doctor but not a doctor. Like in Scrubs.
The person who goes to crime scenes and determines method, cause, etc. is a medical examiner, usually just called an ME. They investigate both live and dead people, as long as it was suspicious in some way, and often practice as regular doctors too. There’s actually only like 450 in the country because it takes like 15 to 20 years of schooling and practice to be officially considered a legitimate ME. The coroner usually calls in the ME if there is a suspicious death or mass death, etc. I don’t want to be one, so I can’t remember all the details, I do know you get a degree in something medical-y, then I think you have to actually practice as a doctor for a while, then you have a few years of forensics, then there’s another degree. It’s all way over my head, since I’m focusing on linguistic anthropology and only have the minimal teachings in those departments.
I did just take a gander at the Medical Examiner wiki page and it’s wrong. At least in qualifications, because it lists what’s required to be a coroner, not a medical examiner. Which are two different things, as I’ve obviously just explained at way too much length.
