Critique of Anthropology

Article Critique: “The Scope of Anthropological Contributions to Human Rights Investigations”

In the 2005 article The Scope of Anthropological Contributions to Human Rights Investigations, by Steadman and Haglund examines the participation of anthropologists in international human rights investigations between 1990 and 1999 by surveying four of the most active organizations, including the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Fountain (FAFG), and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR). The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was established by the United Nations. Steadman and Haglund (2005) reveal that “wartime atrocities such as genocide, rape, and torture continue to occur in most countries around the world,” (p.23). Although international resolutions have banned wartime atrocities, recent human rights atrocities have included widespread slaughter of civilians. Haglund and Steadman(2005) state that “new protocols are introduced by the U.N charter “crimes against humanity,” national and international courts seek to prosecute individuals for atrocities, the essential for the objective collection and evaluation of physical evidence by forensic scientists have never been greater,” (p.23). By surveying these four organizations the authors calculated that the majority of the anthropologists and archaeologists who participated in human rights work, the roles they performed on projects, the number of countries to which they were deployed and the scope of their work product , solely depended on the education level, nationality, and which organization they worked for.

Research shows that 134 anthropologists from 22 nations investigated nearly 1300 sites in 33 countries during this study period. By surveying the four organizations data were gathered for each organization for the years 1990 till 1999. The following information was collected, number of projects administered each year,...