Bones Created By Hart Hanson: The Field Of Autobiography And Relationship

The field of archaeology is influenced greatly by popular culture in society, which is either beneficial or harmful for archaeology. The television show Bones created by Hart Hanson is beneficial for archaeology because one of its producers, Kathy Reichs, is a forensic anthropologist herself, the show uses proper archaeological procedures and terminology, the show also avoids stereotypical archaeology. The main character in Bones is Temperance Brennan who is a forensic anthropologist that assists FBI agent Booth with crimes that involve human remains. The remains are typically bones, or destroyed human bodies that the FBI is unable to identify without the help of Dr. Brennan and her team of other scientists at the Jeffersonian Institution.
Kathy Reichs has written multiple novels based on the character Temperance Brennan, she worked in Quebec as a forensic anthropologist and was an anthropology professor at the University of North Carolina (Wayman 2006). Reichs was able to use her knowledge of forensic anthropology and archaeology to make the show come to life. For many years Kathy Reichs worked in the field prior to writing her novels, she "[identified] bodies not only in North Carolina and in Quebec but also in New York City after 9/11 and in Rwanda and Guatemala" (Wayman 2006). Kathy Reichs novels were inspired by her own personal experiences and the cases that she worked on, however, she did fictionalize them while keeping them as scientifically accurate as possible
The character Temperance Brennan and her team use scientific procedures in order to identify human remains and gain a better understanding of the crime. The FBI uses Dr. Brennan as an asset because, "trained archaeologists [can] contribute a great deal to understanding the crime scene" (Crossland 2013). Brennan goes to some crime scenes with Agent Booth to search for clues in the environment that the human remains were found in and then test these pieces of evidence in the lab. In this show they do not simplify things, the language that is used is scientific and technical which adds to the authenticity of the procedures they show to the viewers. The reason that the human remains are so important for Brennan to understand is because the evidence is "able to challenge the lies and mistruths told by those responsible for the deaths of those exhumed" (Crossland 2013). In this show they focus on the evidence itself and the procedures used to extract the DNA for example. It is not like other crime shows where it is all about catching the bad guy, in Bones they educate the viewers on the tasks performed in the lab. Dr. Brennan does not typically assist with the initial excavation itself however, she does do tasks of a forensic archaeologist once in a while though her job title is forensic anthropologist. She assists with recovering the remains, determining the type of remains