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Given the paucity of specimens available, it is necessary to extract as much information as possible for each specimen, even when only partial remains are present due to taphonomic or other destructive processes. While different methods function differently, the goal of missing data imputation methods is to accurately estimate the missing values using the other observed values. We selected four data imputation techniques: Hot Deck, Iterative robust model (IRMI), K nearest-neighbor (kNN=5) and the variable means, to examine which of the imputation methods performed best. A subset of Howells’ craniometric database was used. The full sample consisted of 352 individuals from four population groups (Ainu = 86; Arikara = 69; Dogon = 99; Zalavar = 98). Twenty variables were selected to represent the entire cranium and facial skeleton. Two versions of the dataset were then created wherein values were randomly deleted from each variable so that 25% and 50% of the data were considered missing. The same data subsets were used for each of the imputation techniques, and the efficacy of each technique was based on the smallest difference between the imputed measures and actual measures. Correct classification rates and Mahalanobis D2 values were calculated for the original dataset with actual measures and each of the imputed datasets in order to examine the effects of imputed data on biodistance and classification. Results suggest that kNN imputation is the most accurate method. Additionally, it was found that midface variables are more accurately imputed as opposed to cranial variables.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Assessing intrasample variation: Analysis of Rapa Nui (Easter Island) museum cranial collections example2004 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Understanding race and human variation: Why forensic anthropologists are good at identifying race2009 •
American forensicanthropologists uncritically accepted the biological race concept from classic physical anthropology and applied it to methods of human identification. Why and how the biological race concept might work in forensic anthropology was contemplated by Sauer (Soc Sci Med 34 1992 107–111), who hypothesized that American forensic anthropologists are good at what they do because of a concordance between social race and skeletal morphology in American whites and blacks. However, Sauer also stressed that this concordance did not validate the classic biological race concept of physical anthropology that there are a relatively small number of discrete types of human beings. Results from Howells (Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 67 1973 1–259; Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 79 1989 1–189; Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology 82 1995 1–108) and others using craniometric and molecular data show strong geographic patterning of human variation despite overlap in their distributions. However, Williams et al. (Curr Anthropol 46 2005 340–346) concluded that skeletal morphology cannot be used to accurately classify individuals. Williams et al. cited additional support from Lewontin (Evol Biol 6 1972 381–398), who analyzed classic genetic markers. In this study, multivariate analyses of craniometric data support Sauer's hypothesis that there are morphological differences between American whites and blacks. We also confirm significant geographic patterning in human variation but also find differences among groups within continents. As a result, if biological races are defined by uniqueness, then there are a very large number of biological races that can be defined, contradicting the classic biological race concept of physical anthropology. Further, our results show that humans can be accurately classified into geographic origin using craniometrics even though there is overlap among groups. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Journal of Forensic Sciences
Estimation and Evidence in Forensic Anthropology: Age-at-Death2008 •
Abstract: A great deal has previously been written about the use of skeletal morphological changes in estimating ages-at-death. This article looks in particular at the pubic symphysis, as it was historically one of the first regions to be described in the literature on age estimation. Despite the lengthy history, the value of the pubic symphysis in estimating ages and in providing evidence for putative identifications remains unclear. This lack of clarity primarily stems from the fact that rather ad hoc statistical methods have been applied in previous studies. This article presents a statistical analysis of a large data set (n = 1766) of pubic symphyseal scores from multiple contexts, including anatomical collections, war dead, and victims of genocide. The emphasis is in finding statistical methods that will have the correct “coverage.”“Coverage” means that if a method has a stated coverage of 50%, then approximately 50% of the individuals in a particular pubic symphyseal stage should have ages that are between the stated age limits, and that approximately 25% should be below the bottom age limit and 25% above the top age limit. In a number of applications it is shown that if an appropriate prior age-at-death distribution is used, then “transition analysis” will provide accurate “coverages,” while percentile methods, range methods, and means (±standard deviations) will not. Even in cases where there are significant differences in the mean ages-to-transition between populations, the effects on the stated age limits for particular “coverages” are minimal. As a consequence, more emphasis needs to be placed on collecting data on age changes in large samples, rather than focusing on the possibility of inter-population variation in rates of aging.
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Estimation and evidence in forensic anthropology: Sex and race2009 •
Forensic anthropology typically uses osteological and/or dental data either to estimate characteristics of unidentified individuals or to serve as evidence in cases where there is a putative identification. In the estimation context, the problem is to describe aspects of an individual that may lead to their eventual identification, whereas in the evidentiary context, the problem is to provide the relative support for the identification. In either context, individual characteristics such as sex and race may be useful. Using a previously published forensic case (Steadman et al. (2006) Am J Phys Anthropol 131:15–26) and a large (N = 3,167) reference sample, we show that the sex of the individual can be reliably estimated using a small set of 11 craniometric variables. The likelihood ratio from sex (assuming a 1:1 sex ratio for the “population at large”) is, however, relatively uninformative in “making” the identification. Similarly, the known “race” of the individual is relatively uninformative in “making” the identification, because the individual was recovered from an area where the 2000 US census provides a very homogenous picture of (self-identified) race. Of interest in this analysis is the fact that the individual, who was recovered from Eastern Iowa, classifies very clearly with [Howells 1973. Cranial Variation in Man: A Study by Multivariate Analysis of Patterns of Difference Among Recent Human Populations. Cambridge, MA: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology; 1989. Skull Shape and the Map: Craniometric Analyses in the Dispersion of Modern Homo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press]. Easter Islander sample in an analysis with uninformative priors. When the Iowa 2000 Census data on self-reported race are used for informative priors, the individual is clearly identified as “American White.” This analysis shows the extreme importance of an informative prior in any forensic application. Am J Phys Anthropol 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Anatomical crania are occasionally encountered in forensic anthropology laboratories when that material is mistaken for forensically significant human remains. Using craniometric analyses and statistical measures of sample homogeneity, we determine whether anatomical material can be described as a single, homogenous group or as a diverse mix of populations. Twenty-one interlandmark distances were collected from 85 anatomical preparations. Distance measures were calculated between all pairs using a pooled within-sample variance/covari-ance matrix and then subjected to a Defrise-Gussenhoven test between each paired distance to test whether each pair was drawn randomly from the same population. In the Defrise-Gussenhoven analysis, twenty-two percent (n = 66) of the 300 pairwise combinations were significant at the 0.05 level or below. The level of homogeneity suggests a majority of that material originated from the subcontinent of India or West Asia. Therefore, anatomical material can be viewed as a moderately homogenous group, but with a shared taphonomic history.
Journal of human evolution
Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Sumidouro Cave, Lagoa Santa, Brazil: History of discoveries, geological and chronological context, and comparative …2007 •
Journal of human evolution
Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Sumidouro Cave, Lagoa Santa, Brazil: history of discoveries, geological and chronological context, and comparative cranial morphology2007 •
In this work, we present new evidence supporting the idea that the first Americans were very distinct from late and recent Native Americans and Asians in terms of cranial morphology. The study is based on 30 early Holocene specimens recovered from Sumidouro Cave (Lagoa Santa region, central Brazil) by Peter Lund in 1843. Sumidouro is the largest known collection of Paleoindian skulls deriving from a single site. Six different multivariate statistical methods were applied to assess the morphological affinities of the Sumidouro skulls in comparison to Howells' worldwide extant series and late archaic Brazilian series (Base Aérea and Tapera). The results show a clear association between Sumidouro and Australo-Melanesians and none with late Asian and Amerindian series. These results are in accordance with those of previous studies of final Pleistocene/early Holocene human skulls from South, Central, and North America, attesting to a colonization of the New World by at least two diff...
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International Journal of Osteoarchaeology
Comparing individuals buried in flexed and extended positions at the Greek colony of Chersonesos (Crimea) using cranial metric, dental metric, and dental nonmetric traits2022 •
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 00438240600564987
Races of Homo sapiens: if not in the southwest Pacific, then nowhere2006 •
International Journal of Legal Medicine
AncesTrees: ancestry estimation with randomized decision trees2014 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
The cranial morphology of the Botocudo Indians, Brazil2015 •
Human Biology
Craniodental Affinities of Southeast Asia's “Negritos” and the Concordance with Their Genetic Affinities2013 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Cranial variation in the Marquesas Islands2003 •
Revista De Antropologia
O mito da homogeneidade biológica na população paleoíndia de Lagoa Santa: implicações antropológicas2004 •
Biological anthropology of the human …
Metric analysis of skeletal remains: methods and applications2000 •
2010 •
Human Biology
Craniometric Similarities Within and Between Human Populations in Comparison with Neutral Genetic Data2010 •
World Archaeology
Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Cerca Grande, Lagoa Santa, Central Brazil, and the origins of the first Americans2004 •
In: Stevenson CM, Lee G, Morin FJ, editors. Pacific 2000. Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Easter Island and the Pacific. Los Osos, CA: Easter Island Foundation. p 457-494.
Multivariate comparisons of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Polynesian, and circum-Polynesian craniaAmerican Journal of Human Biology
Exploring northeast African metric craniofacial variation at the individual level: A comparative study using principal components analysis2004 •
Anatomical Record-advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology
Climate Signatures in the Morphological Differentiation of Worldwide Modern Human Populations2009 •
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South Amerindian Craniofacial Morphology: Diversity and Implications for Amerindian Evolution2005 •
Bioarchaeology of Marginalized People
“Officially absent but actually present”: bioarchaeological evidence for population diversity in London during the Black Death, 1348-50 AD.2019 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Cranial morphological variation among contemporary Mexicans: Regional trends, ancestral affinities, and genetic comparisons2013 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Intercemetery morphological variation in Arikara crania from the mobridge site (39WW1)1982 •
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Anthropological Science
An alternative view of the peopling of South America: Lagoa Santa in craniometric perspective2011 •
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Comptes Rendus Palevol
Amerindians: testing the hypothesis about their homogeneity2004 •
American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Craniometric variation, genetic theory, and modern human origins1994 •
Journal of Human Evolution
Early Holocene human skeletal remains from Santana do Riacho, Brazil: implications for the settlement of the New World2003 •