De los restos a la identidad humana: Antropología Forense en el Ecuador

Forensic Anthropology in Ecuador responds to a series of changes, adaptations, and contributions from both foreign and national professionals for its current, though still incipient, establishment with institutional support. The objective of this article is to explore the definitions, techniques, methods, and scope of this forensic specialty in the Ecuadorian context. The methodology used corresponds to a documentary study, based on a systematic review. The results showed that this forensic specialty is institutionalized in the country, but its development is still in its early stages, operating along two main axes: the governmental, with the National System of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, and the non-governmental, with the Ecuadorian Forensic Anthropology Team. This specialty applies knowledge from Physical Anthropology, Cultural Anthropology, and Archaeology to conduct searches and recoveries of human remains, and Identification of these under different preservation conditions in scenarios of varying complexity, and determining the cause, date, and circumstances of death to support the forensic pathologist, taking into account biotic and abiotic factors that are part of the context