Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
developed an elaborate system to “morphoscopically” distinguish the ancestry of individ-
uals, to try to discern Indigenous from Mestizo from European ( Genov´s, 1967 ). 8 This elabo-
rate system combined the phenotypic traits of hair color, eye color, skin color, dentition, body
hair, and body form.
Asian populations were studied for stature estimation early on by Stevenson (1929) , but
other studies to develop Asian stature formulae did not follow for another half century.
Yung-hao et al. (1979) measured 40 males from Chungking, a southwestern district of China
and found that the femur and tibia formulae were the best indicators of stature. Shitai (1983)
measured the radius, ulna, humerus, femur, and tibia from 50 Han Chinese from southern
China. Shitai recommended using the same age corrections as Trotter and Gleser (1951a) .
Problems with age corrections will be discussed later in this chapter. Shulin and Fangwu
(1983) published on stature estimation for 70 Southern Chinese males using bones other
than the long bones of the limbs (cranial circumference, clavicle length, innominate length,
and breadth of the scapula).
Many stature studies have been published on African populations, most using the
Raymond Dart Collection 9 from South Africa. Allbrook (1961) measured the tibia and ulna
of 429 living individuals and 53 skeletons from East Africa. Allbrook noted that the difference
in percutaneous tibial length is not statistically significant from the dry bone length. Lundy
(1983) measured 117 males and 125 females from the Dart Collection in South Africa. The
actual stature was not known, so the Fully anatomical method was implemented first and
used in lieu of actual stature. Bidmos studied stature in SouthAfricans from the Dart Collection
using the calcaneus and fragmentary long bones, along with an analysis of Fully's anatomical
method, which is described below ( Bidmos, 2005, 2006, 2008 ). More recently, the measure-
ments of the skull were used to create regression formulae for indigenous South Africans
( Ryan and Bidmos, 2007 ). For all the different populations around the world and the bones
from which to estimate stature, the femur and tibia (if measured consistently) have yielded
the most accurate results. The articulated vertebrae have also been successful, but researchers
should avoid any bones that do not actually play a role in an individual's stature, with the
lowest results for the estimation of stature from craniofacial bones or teeth.
Anatomical Methods
Dwight's Anatomical Method
Dwight (1894) preferred the anatomical method to the mathematical method despite it
being extremely time consuming and requiring better expertise on the part of the researcher.
Dwight developed a method made up of nine steps and used a long table as a giant osteomet-
ric board in order to reconstruct the skeleton. He made use of modeling clay to articulate the
skeleton and to reconstruct the spinal curvature. His steps are listed in Box 6.3 .
8 It should be noted that Genov ´ s measured the tibia without the malleolus in this study, similar to Trotter
and Gleser (1952) .
9 The Raymond A. Dart Collection of Human Skeletons is curated at the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
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