How to become a Forensic Anthropologist

How to become a Forensic Anthropologist?

If you want to become a forensic anthropologist, you have to go to university and study physical anthropology. Physical anthropology is one of four sub-disciplines of anthropology. Cultural anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics are the others. Physical anthropology encompasses  topics such as primatology, evolution, and skeletal biology, to name a few. So you have to go to university to get a degree in physical anthropology, and you should try and focus your studies on human osteology. From there, you must continue your education, because in order to practice as a forensic anthropologist, you need a minimum of a master's in physical anthropology with a lot of experience, or a PhD in physical anthropology. However it is possible to study specific aspects of physical anthropology at the master's level, such as skeletal biology. It is also possible to study forensic anthropology at the master's level. 

There are no full time forensic anthropologists in Canada, so when skeletal remains are found, typically the police consult a physical anthropologist with a specialty in skeletal biology.  Almost all physical anthropologists in Canada teach at universities; others work in museums such as the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa (http://www.civilization.ca/).  Forensic anthropologists in Canada belong to the Canadian Association of Physical Anthropology (http://capa.fenali.net/)and, in many cases, to the Canadian Society of Forensic Sciences (http://www.csfs.ca/csfs_journal.aspx).  In the United States, the employment situation is similar.  However, there is also a professional organization to which physical anthropologists working in the forensic anthropology field can belong, the American Board of Forensic Anthropology  (www.csuchico.edu/anth/ABFA/).

Much of the work for forensic anthropologists today is in the area of human rights work with organizations like Physicians for Human Rights (http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/).  Another human rights organization is CIFA, the Center for International Forensic Assistance (www.cifa.ac/); it employs forensic scientists from all fields to do work when needed. Something like this would provide great field experience for an up-and-coming anthropologist.