Study calls for a new approach to replace 'ancestry' in forensics
A new study finds forensics researchers use terms related to ancestry and race in inconsistent ways, and calls for the discipline to adopt a new approach to better account for both the fluidity of populations and how historical events have shaped our skeletal characteristics.
Forensic anthropology is a science, and we need to use terms consistently. Our study both highlights our discipline's challenges in discussing issues of ancestral origin consistently, and suggests that focusing on population affinity would be a way forward."
Ann Ross, corresponding author of the study and professor of biological sciences, North Carolina State University