ANTH 317 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Algor Mortis, Rigor Mortis, Corpus Delicti
Document Summary
Determining time of death is not nearly as easy as it"s often depicted, and in fact most assertions about it are either wrong or should be taken with a grain of salt. People dissected alive, lovely, interesting how cultural differences result in very different approaches to the study of the human body. Rigor mortis really is very creepy when you think about it, but clearly usefully diagnostic and difficult to miss. Rigor, livor, and algor, the prologue makes it seem that despite pathologists best efforts to make determination of time of death more precise than these is not yet possible. So decomposition is prompted as much from inside the body as outside of it. Can think of cases (or well one) in the town next to mine where corpus delicti was crucial. You"d think places with the most murders would appoint a coroner with actual medical/scientific knowledge first rather than just massachusetts as a whole.
