Modern Cross-Sectional Imaging in Anthropology
Michael J. Thali M.D., Mark D. Viner, B. G. Brogdon in Brogdon's Forensic Radiology, 2010
When visual morphological examination is not possible, for example in mummies with dehydrated cephalic soft tissues that must be preserved, numerical analysis of crania can provide assistance through a statistical comparative pop-ulation approach.21 In such cases, a major advantage of MSCT is the possibility of metric studies, of the skull in particular. These can be done using the existing methods developed on dry bones. Metric determination of racial phenotype is based on the use of selected measurements that show statistically significant interpopulation differences.20 This technique necessitates a thorough knowledge of skeletal landmarks, proper equipment, and precise measuring skills. There can be complex combinations of shape and size differences, which are not morphologically obvious, between populations, and these may be quantified and evaluated by using a set of measurements. The statistical technique most commonly used is discriminant function analysis, which assumes that human variation spans a continuum across space and populations, but concentration of people with similar features can be found toward the centers, whereas at the peripheries there may be an overlap with neighboring groups. In this context, a recent study validated the accuracy and exactness of craniometric measurements performed on skull CT reconstructions, with results identical to those obtained on the same dry skulls.23
Globalization, Transnationalism, and the Analytical Feasibility of Ancestry Estimation
Heather M. Garvin, Natalie R. Langley in Case Studies in Forensic Anthropology, 2019
An initial estimation of ancestry utilized craniometric data and Fordisc 3.1 (FD3) (Jantz & Ousley, 2005). All females were included in this analysis. FD3 used 10 Forward mean %-selected variables (BPL, ZYB, WFB, MAB, BNL, BBH, FOB, AUB, MAL, and XCB1) in a cross-validated discriminant function analysis (DFA) that correctly classified 74.1% of the reference sample (see Table 6.2). Using this model, the unknown individual was classified closest to the Hispanic female sample (see Table 6.2). However, the Mahalanobis distances (d = 14.4–32.2) to the group centroids were moderately high for all groups and visualization of the DFA in multivariate space located the unknown individual outside the 95% confidence ellipse for Hispanic females (see Figure 6.4). The rather anomalous nature of these results is generally characteristic of (1) measurement error, (2) atypicality (e.g., an outlier), or (3) potential misclassification due to nonrepresentative reference data. Therefore, all measurements were reassessed to safeguard against error introduced during data collection. The cranium was assessed visually for pathologies and other irregularities that may affect craniometric analysis. No errors or abnormalities were detected.
The Medical Management of Madness
Petteri Pietikainen in Madness, 2015
Phrenology influenced a more technical doctrine called craniology, which was preoccupied with measuring the skull and its proportions and drawing psychological, moral and racial conclusions based on these measurements. Craniometric methods were occasionally used for measuring the skulls of the mentally ill, even though the more enlightened psychiatrists were suspicious of the scientific value of such investigations. The Italian psychiatrist Enrico Morselli (1852–1929) probably represented the views of many of his medical colleagues in his comments on craniology: ‘Whoever tries to convince you that alienists measure the skulls of the mad to deduce whether or not they are disturbed in the mind shows that he has learned to tell tales’ (Guarnieri 1988, 107). Craniology and phrenology were parts of a larger anthropometric research on the external appearance of humans, which lasted from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. After World War II, anthropometry – ‘the measurement of Man’ – was tainted and discredited by the racialist, racist and scientifically unsound tenets and methods exemplified in the more extreme forms of physical anthropology, criminology, eugenics and intelligence testing, in which intellectual capacity was judged by cranial capacity. In this quasi-scientific game, ‘negroes’, Indians, Sami people and other ‘inferior races’ were usually at the receiving end of vicious prejudices and white-supremacist statements dressed in quantitative scientific jargon. Today, anthropometry is no longer used for racist or political purposes.1
Social Work as a Product and Project of Whiteness, 1607–1900
Published in Journal of Progressive Human Services, 2021
Joshua R. Gregory
Polygeny refers to the belief that different types of humans can be classified as separate species. Craniometry describes the practice of measuring physical differentiations among human skulls as supposed empirical evidence of this natural division of humans into separate species. With these racist scientific tools, Agassiz became the foremost proponent of the theory that white- and black-skinned humans comprised categorically different species, while Morton amassed a collection of human skulls whose disparate physical dimensions he interpreted as indicators of relative superiority or inferiority. Of course, each of these scientists subjectively read social meaning into physiological differences between white and black populations in a systematically racist manner to justify white supremacy. Their collective work contended that white and black were separate species, and that the marginally larger average skull size of white humans relative to black humans verified that white humans were, in fact, superior (Gould, 1996). Society heeded this “scientific” wisdom, finding a comfortable rationalization for the existing racial stratification that facilitated white supremacy and dehumanized African Americans.
Secular trends in cranial chord variables: a study of changes in sexual dimorphism of the North Indian population during 1954–2011
Published in Annals of Human Biology, 2019
Vineeta Saini
The magnitude of sex derived differences and secular changes in skeletal measurements vary significantly among populations of different regions and time-periods, as do the craniometric variables studied, which confounds the universal applicability of any precise anthropometric standard for sex determination. Thus, variables need to be updated at regular intervals to measure the extent of secular changes in them. The present study provides updated discriminant functions using chord measurements which can be successfully applied on intact, as well as fragmentary, crania of the North Indian population. Further, it is suggested that the landmarks of the neurocranium (especially the glabella, inion, and asterion) must be clearly identified and measured with extreme caution. Future studies on large and balanced sample sizes with more advanced approaches (i.e. geometric morphometric) are also warranted.
Introduction of spring-assisted cranioplasty for scaphocephaly in Russia: first cases evaluated using detailed craniometry and principal component analysis
Published in Journal of Plastic Surgery and Hand Surgery, 2019
Leonid Satanin, Ivan Teterin, Andrey Evteev, Alexander Sakharov, Lars Kölby, Natalia Lemeneva, Vitaly Roginsky
At the Burdenko Neurosurgery Institute, several approaches to neurosurgical intervention, including distraction devices, have been used on scaphocephalic patients. In 2015, SAC was introduced as a new method, making it necessary to demonstrate its advantages and disadvantages in order to clarify the selection and use of this particular technique. Therefore, a detailed study of the clinical characteristics of patients with scaphocephaly who underwent SAC, as well as changes in patient skull morphology after surgery, was performed using a set of craniometric variables and according to intracranial volume (ICV). This represents an evaluation of the results of the first series of patients with scaphocephaly treated with SAC in Russia.
Related Knowledge Centers
- Brachycephaly
- Cephalometry
- Evolution
- Skeleton
- Skull
- Anthropometry
- Body
- Phrenology
- Scientific Racism
- Dolichocephaly