Notes for the History of Forensic Physical Anthropology in Mexico

Abstract

This work is aimed at making known forensic physical anthropology in Mexico. This work was carried out through the consultation of various written sources, which allowed us to know that such activity began with the investigations of m.d. Francisco Martínez Baca and m.d. Manuel Vergara, at the former Puebla jail in Mexico City, and m.d. Ignacio Fernández Ortigoza, at the former Belem jail in Mexico City, at the end of the xix century and at the beginning of the XX century, whose studies are based on the so-called “criminal anthropology”. Already in the xx century, we have the works of Vargas, Alva and Luján, and the one of Arturo Romano Pacheco carried out at the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal from 1975, a date that can be considered as the end of old-fashioned criminal anthropology and the beginning of modern forensic physical anthropology. This work also presents the contributions of Mexican physical anthropologists and students of physical anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia to forensic physical anthropology. Their works have not only helped to solve cases but have also contributed to the teaching and divulging of this subject.