The Body Farm essays

The Body Farm essays Many people have never heard of the University of Tennessees Forensic Anthropology Facility, otherwise known as the Body Farm. So the purpose of this paper is to give you a brief description of what the body farm is, and what goes on at it. First let me explain to you what anthropology is. Anthropology is the use of certain tools, technology, and techniques/applications along with analyzing corpses and skeletons to find out information dealing with crimes involving death. The Forensic Anthropology facility was started by Mr. William Bass in the fall of 1980 with a small area of land and a single body. The facility is located in Tennessee. The facility became known as the Body Farm because that is what novelist Patricia Cornwell referred to it as in one of her best selling novels in 1994. Originally, Mr. Bass was taking courses to earn a major in Psychology but he enrolled in an Anthropology course for fun, and was asked to go onto the scene of an accident. When he realized what this was all about he decided to change his major to Anthropology and this led to his claim for fame. At first research was slow and tedious because Mr. Bass was not quiet sure where to get started at, but soon the picture became clearer to him and he got his first real start. He began by doing simple research on teeth, bones, flesh, and insects. He observed, tested, and recorded his findings which led to new heights and future research. Soon after beginning his research, Mr. Bass was helping to discover the statistics of a body found on the roadside and was quoted as saying "To refine my estimate of age and to gauge the woman's stature, I needed to remove the remaining tissue from the bones. Short of leaving the skull and femur outdoors and allowing insects and scavengers to pick the bones clean a slow process, and one that could mean losing the femur or mandible to some scavenging buzzard or coyote the only good way t...