| The Premice... |
Body modifications of the human body are an, as yet, untapped entity within biological anthropology, with the potential to aid in individual identification, both from the point of view of creating a general profile and of confirming positive identification. Body modifications are potentially an important aspect of human identification. The reasons for their importance include: their increasing prevalence, their impact on other methods of human identification (such as visual, pathological or trauma-based identification), the presence of jewellery and associated artefacts within the identification context, the presence of potentially unique identifiers and a method that is as applicable to the identification of the living as it is to the dead.
This project is currently being undertaken by Alex Starkie as part of a Leverhulme Trust funded project (ref: F/00 762/C).
Tim has ongoing body modification research collaborations with the School of Social Sciences & Law within the University of Teesside, in addition to research projects involving researchers at the Universities of Sheffield, Dundee and Helsinki.
Black, S.M. and Thompson, T.J.U. (2007) Body Modifications. In: Thompson, T.J.U. and Black, S.M. (eds) Forensic Human Identification: An Introduction. CRC Press, Inc.: Florida, USA.