Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
construction. Therefore this section continues with several chapters that cover other areas
informing the reconstruction of an individual's biological profile: paleopathology, trauma,
taphonomy, dental anthropology, and demography.
Chapter 3 examines adult and subadult skeletal age-at-death estimation. It concisely
reviews growth so as to discuss the differences behind the theory of aging methods for juve-
niles and adults. Dental development and long bone growth are therefore reviewed and
subadult aging methods discussed. Likewise, the chapter examines the major methods devel-
oped for adult age-at-death estimation. It further presents how anthropologists quantify
developmental and degenerative changes, given the inherent difficulties involved to create
more robust age estimates. It includes a discussion of multifactorial methods and the use
of Bayesian statistics in age estimation.
Chapter 4 discusses the causes and consequences of sexual dimorphism in the human
skeleton. This chapter elucidates the distinction between metric sex estimation and visual
sex assessment from the adult skeleton, with an overview of the historical development
for each. The accuracy of existing sexing methods for each bone is discussed, calling into
question the preference for the skull when postcranial elements perform at least as well in
discriminant function analyses. Sex estimation (metric analysis) offers the benefit of error
estimates and reduced interobserver error. Other sex estimation research that has had
varying degrees of success is discussed, including research on sexing subadults, sex estima-
tion from skeletal pathology, and molecular methods for sex estimation.
Chapter 5 covers ancestry estimation and begins with a historical review of the race
concept in physical anthropology and its social impact, especially in terms of the effect scien-
tific racism has had on both society and the development of the discipline of biological
anthropology into what it is today. Key historical figures who influenced the development
of the concept in some way are discussed and the modern view of human variation is intro-
duced. The chapter then outlines the practice of ancestry estimation by discussing metric and
nonmetric trait analysis through the use of robust multivariate statistical methods.
Chapter 6 focuses on stature estimation and therefore presents the various anatomical and
mathematical methods developed for its approximation. It explores the history of stature esti-
mation including early femur/stature ratios, the development of regression formulae for
various bones, and anatomical methods along with recent revisions. Secular trends are
also discussed as their influence has resulted in a relative increase in stature over the last
few centuries. Further, problems in methodology are presented in terms of incongruence
between antemortem and postmortem data and the accuracy of various statistical
approaches.
Chapter 7 addresses the skeletal analysis of paleopathology. Bioarchaeology and analytical
paleopathology are defined and discussed in depth as to their importance with elucidating
factors for past populations such as subsistence and community health. Differential diag-
nosis and specific and nonspecific stress indicators are explored. Further, discussion centers
around selection of pathological parameters, accurate documentation of bony reactive
changes, careful quantification of these continuous processes, and designing an appropriate
analytical framework for paleopathological projects.
Chapter 8 investigates the analysis of skeletal trauma. It begins by reviewing basic bone
biomechanics and proceeds to define major principles of trauma as seen with the categories
of blunt force, sharp force, ballistic, and thermal trauma. A new viewpoint for the
